The Mount Maunganui Lifeguard Service is targeting a September 19 return to its clubhouse after eight months away.

A 168-tonne wall of shipping containers will be installed to protect the building from rockfall.

The clubhouse has been closed since soon after the January 22 Mauao landslide tragedy, which claimed six lives at the nearby Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park.

Lifeguard service chairman Brent Warner said the club had received all the reports and information needed to decide to return.

“It’s been a really tough and gruelling eight-month period since the evacuation,” he told media at the clubhouse yesterday.

A notice declaring the building, which is among facilities around the foot of Mauao, unsafe to enter was lifted in April. The club held off a return as it awaited more information about risks from Mauao.

Warner said the Qualitative Landslide Risk Assessment report was completed on August 24.

It found a tolerable level of risk to life from a landslide, but an intolerable risk from rockfall, boulder fall and slips down Mauao.

Warner said to reduce that risk, the club will install 14 shipping containers behind and along the side of the clubhouse, painted in surf lifesaving colours.

Each container will be filled with 10 tonnes of dunnage, bringing its total weight to 12 tonnes.

The containers will be chained together to create a 168-tonne barrier designed to protect people in and around the clubhouse and car park.

Work will begin on Monday, and a building warrant of fitness remediation is planned for the following week.

Warner said the club’s target was September 19 for reoccupation and September 26 as a backup date.

The Mount Maunganui Lifeguard Service headquarters have been shut since the January 22 landslide. Photo / Tauranga City Council

The Bay of Plenty Times previously reported the club was working towards an August 30 return, but that timeline was dependent on the completion and independent review of the risk assessment.

At the time, a 1m-high safety wall between the clubhouse and Mauao had been proposed as a precaution and was expected to cost up to $387,000.

Warner said the wall had been designed to address landslide risk, but the assessment showed the greater concern was rockfall and boulder fall.

“We’ve had to pivot our planning and our risk mitigation measures, which has seen us then move to the container solution.”

Warner said the cost of the new solution was still being worked out but was expected to be less than the safety wall.

Surf Life Saving New Zealand would continue to support and fund the club’s risk mitigation work, he said.

Warner said there was “complete relief” when the plan to return was announced at a club meeting on Thursday night, with some members becoming emotional.

He said reopening before the Labour Weekend summer patrol season would be “absolutely massive” for the organisation.

“There is no doubt that the last eight months have been the toughest period in our 97-year history, and our members are really looking forward to getting back into the facility.”

Mount Maunganui Lifeguard Service board member Liam Shanahan. Photo / David Hall.

Club board member Liam Shanahan said members were relieved to have a clear path back to the clubhouse.

He said the club had gone from its “pretty flashy, nice building” to operating from a portable cabin, while equipment was spread across shipping containers at the clubhouse and rescue centre.

Shanahan said the temporary setup had been “a bit of a nightmare” for athletes and lifeguards training during winter.

“Getting out on the water, doing the hard yards and then coming back to no hot showers, nowhere to wash their gear or get changed. Definitely been tough on them.”

He said members were excited to see work begin next week after months of waiting.

“That’s probably the major thing for people is even though we had a date and a plan to get in, no one could see anything happening.”

He said the September target would give the club enough time to prepare for its summer patrol season.

“It’ll probably be a special first patrol for most people.”

Between Labour Weekend and Easter, volunteers from the lifeguard service spend thousands of hours patrolling some of New Zealand’s busiest beaches.

The club moved into its $3 million newly built headquarters on Adams Ave in 2019.