D-day has come for Matatā residents in a red-zoned debris flow risk area, and they are now squatters on their own land.
In 2005, the Awatarariki fanhead on the coast of the Eastern Bay of Plenty was engulfed in slurry, rocks and timber in a massive debris flow.
No one died but property was damaged.
After a drawn-out process, the council deemed the area too unsafe to inhabit.
Only two households remain - one has reluctantly thrown in the towel and been granted an extension to stay a year, and the other hasn't settled.
Jean Bell visited the town.
