All but two households have been able to return to their homes in central Wellington after a large slip yesterday swept away part of a retaining wall and the bank above it.
More than 25 people in eight homes were evacuated last night as the bank gave way and a big job is ahead to restore it.
David McLean's day started like any other yesterday in his home on top of a hill on The Terrace.
Earlier in the morning his wife walked up the very path that would collapse by afternoon.
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"She said that there were cracks in the concrete that looked a bit funny and our neighbour also said she noticed some cracking and movement of the concrete path," McLean said.
Later on, they both heard a loud rumble.
"I didn't think much more of it until my wife came downstairs and said 'we've got no water you've got to go fix it!'"
McLean then went outside to find his neighbour staring at the slip below.
He is one of the unlucky homes right in the red zone of the slip, and cannot return.
With water and sewage cut off, he is facing an uncertain amount of time before he can return home and in the meantime will be staying with friends.
Until given the all clear this afternoon, residents were told it would be unlikely they would be able to return today while assessments were underway.
One of the houses affected by the slip on The Terrace. Photo: RNZ / Kirsty Frame
A large tree close to the slip's edge was the centre of much of the worry.
Wellington City Council chief infrastructure officer Siobhan Proctor said there was often a risk of trees falling soon after a slip.
"We saw in Lennel Road last week in Wadestown where we had a major slip that closed the road ... as soon as we opened it we had a tree come down as well so there's always going to be that risk we've got to be mindful of," Proctor said.
By afternoon the risk assessment had concluded it was fine for most residents to return.
There are foundational concerns still with the house in front of McLean's - the one teetering on the edge of the slip.
Other residents got the call early this afternoon that they would be able to return to their homes after a cold and rough 24 hours.
Emergency services at the scene of the slip yesterday. Photo: RNZ / Charlotte Cook
Council Spokesperson Richard McLean said the clean up was expected to start tomorrow.
"It's going to be a really big and quite a challenging job because there's a lot of earth and concrete from the retaining wall in that debris," he told RNZ.
It would take a couple of days to clean up - but from there the job was not over, he said.
"[The slip] is a combination of council property and private property for a start, and then there's going to have to be engineers involved, insurers involved, and council's own people involved and so I don't think those homes are going to be reoccupied in a hurry."
There have been almost 30 slips in the last 24 hours alone in Wellington.
Most have not been as significant as The Terrace, but this afternoon a tree fell and blocked access though The Seatoun Tunnel.
Further out of Wellington, two residents are still locked out of their red stickered homes after a slip in Stokes Valley.
But Siobhan Proctor said the number of landslides happening this year across the central city were actually less than usual.
"This isn't a 'worst year' by any means, there's consistently about 1100 [slips] a year."
More rain is forecast for Wellington for the rest of the week.