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Parts of the Bay of Plenty remain under a State of Emergency as authorities continue to respond to the impacts of extreme rainfall, flooding, and landslips. Multiple parks, tracks, and visitor attractions- including the Mauao campsite and surrounding walkways and reserves have been closed while safety and land stability assessments continue, and communities and visitors are being reminded to stay up to date on closures and hazards.
With ground conditions still saturated in many areas, the risk of further slips, flooding, and unstable terrain remains an ongoing concern for anyone planning to camp, hike or stay in outdoor locations.
The Department of Conservation (DOC) says it is working through safety assessments at campgrounds under its jurisdiction, particularly in areas where steep hills and rivers could present elevated risks after the recent extreme weather.
Karen Ismay, operations advisor, DOC Hauraki, says that DOC is following its internal safety procedures before determining when sites can safely reopen. “Under our Trigger and Response Plan, there are a range of tasks our team needs to carry out to ensure we can safely reopen our formal campsites within our campgrounds in the Kauaeranga Valley and elsewhere across DOC’s Hauraki district,” she says.
Karen says that the priority has been ensuring staff can access sites to make those assessments safely. “The first assessment we need to make is if it’s safe for our staff to carry out assessments. We need to determine whether the Kauaeranga Rd is passable, particularly the numerous fords across the road,” she says. Karen adds that the assessment programme is progressing. “We are underway with our assessments and have completed about 50% of those. The campsites we have been checked and are open are generally on flat ground and not surrounded by steep hills, where land stability would need to be an additional consideration,” she says.
Despite increasingly volatile weather conditions, Karen says DOC has not permanently closed any of its southern Coromandel campsites due to either safety or climate-related risks. “In short, no, we have not permanently closed any southern Coromandel campsites due to either safety or climate-related risks,” she says. “We are very conscious of the need to ensure visitors have a safe and enjoyable experience and there may be times when we close a section of a campsite for safety or weather reasons.”
DOC is also emphasising the responsibility of campers to understand and respond to changing environmental conditions, particularly when weather warnings are in place. Karen says the agency consistently reinforces this message. “We consistently urge campers to monitor weather forecasts and the websites and social media channels of DOC and other relevant public sector agencies when there is a weather event of the kind we’ve recently seen,” she says. “There’s a lot of information and advice on this page of the DOC website. If there is a serious weather event looming, and weather warnings have been issued, our staff will strongly encourage any campers to reconsider their plans and leave our campsites for their own safety. In a declared Civil Defence Emergency situation, we will directly instruct them to leave,” she says.
Recent updates from Tauranga Bay of Plenty (TBOP) say the Bay of Plenty extreme rainfall event has affected numerous visitor areas, river systems, walking tracks, and recreational reserves, leading to closures while land stability, waterway hazards, and access routes are assessed and remediated. Visitors and campers are being advised to regularly check updated regional information, weather warnings, and closure notices before planning travel or outdoor stays, as conditions can shift rapidly in response to residual weather patterns.
