Death, devastation and extreme weather test media

Photo: Bay of Plenty Times

"I can look at our protectors - our maunga - around us and there's huge slips gashing them. One of our whanau described it as just like a movie - or something you might see on the TV," Civil Defence incident management leader Trudy Nawhare told RNZ's Checkpoint last Monday.

She was describing the damage in Te Araroa on the East Cape. At the height of the danger, Newstalk ZB reported Civil Defence officials there telling whanau to tie their tamariki to themselves and wait for rescue from floodwaters.

The disaster movie scenes Nawhare described also played out on TV news - from Northland, Coromandel, elsewhere in Tairawhiti and the Bay of Plenty. But in Mount Manganui it wasn't just the scars of storm damage on the hillsides.

The catastrophic slip from Mauao onto Beachlands holiday park killed six campers and became the focus of the media coverage for days.

Eyewitness Alistair Hardy gave TVNZ News chilling phone footage of a slip he filmed in the early hours of the morning. He also gave a chilling account of his own helplessness when disaster struck after 9am.

The Herald vividly described how Morrinsville teacher Lisa Maclennan also raised the alarm and saved lives - but didn't live to tell the media about it herself.

Images of the giant slip from overhead were heavily used by the media but perhaps the starkest image this past week was the Bay of Plenty Times front page on Monday.

It bore the names of Maclennan and five other victims on a stark black background and a statement from Ngati Ranginui: "Those who have passed now become part of the sacred fabric of our Maunga. Their wairua will rest forever, beneath the mantle of Mauao, protected and embraced for all time."

Pointing the finger

Along with neighbouring Ngāti Rangi and Ngāti Pūkenga, Ngāti Ranginui administers the maunga through the Mauao Trust. The prime minister thanked them all for their support of people who were displaced and traumatised - and for their help with the recovery.

But on social media, the iwi were accused o