The tragedy of January's fatal landslide is still raw for a Mount Maunganui resident who was at the campground that day.

Colin McGonagle sat through the entire press conference on Wednesday, in which the systemic failure at the council to manage the risk on Mauao was laid bare.

In his review of the deadly landslide, retired judge Paul Davison KC found the loss of six lives was preventable, with "one competent consultant after another" identifying the hazard over two decades.

McGonagle said it was tough to hear.

"I shed tears when I remember back, of those people who lost their lives, that's the thing that stays with me. Could have been prevented and unfortunately they weren't moved off that site when there were signs that it was dangerous," he said.

"In hindsight we're all smarter, but feel for the families."

McGonagle said it was frustrating to learn of the missed opportunities to mitigate the risk over more than 20 years.

"People were given reports that obviously highlighted risk here, on the mountain, and they were just put away in little shelves, tidy little boxes ... but nobody took any action or took it seriously enough to put in [an action plan]."

He said New Zealand was no stranger to natural disasters but the report showed the country hadn't learned from them.

"We still say, 'Oh we'll learn from this, we'll learn from this', you'd think we'd be more intelligent and skilled by now. It's disappointing."

Davison's report found no single person was at fault.

He said that "cristicism justly and appropriately" lay with the council, not with the campground manager and staff who were "ill-equipped and unprepared to make the decisions that could have avoided this tragedy".

McGonagle agreed with that finding.

"The camp manager wasn't blamed and I think fairly enough. People ask me, 'Colin you saw that happening in front of your eyes an hour-and-a-half before it happened, why didn't you do something?'.

"But y'know laymen, we don't know these things until it happens."

He said the question of whether heads should roll would likely wait until all the reviews had been completed.

Manager of Pavilion Apartments, Gail Fagan, said the timeframe made accountability difficult.

"Do you roll somebody's head that retired 20 years ago? I think people need to get on with their lives and just get to fixing what was broken.

"Are the right people in the right jobs to do that? I don't know. But hopefully they are."

Following Wednesday's press conference, Tauranga City Council chief executive Marty Grenfell told Checkpoint he hadn't offered his resignation and was confident he was the best person to lead the organisation through what he described as a "difficult period".

Fagan said questions remained about the future of Mauao and the facilities surrounding it.

"The Mount is suffering, there's businesses that are closing down daily because the numbers aren't here. And the reason the numbers aren't here is because ... our one main attraction for Mount Maunganui is no longer there.

"It's as simple as that."