Relieved Otago Youth Adventure Trust chairman Brian Pickard was thankful no injuries resulted from Saturday morning's destruction of part of Berwick Lodge.
"The greatest thing is that nobody was hurt. Potentially, it could have been a disaster."
"If we had to pick a group to be there, that was the right one," he said, referring to the 42 people at the camp who were there for a Red Cross Emergency Response Team training camp.
The lodge, 45km south of Dunedin, offered accommodation for 67 people.
The part of the building hit by the slip was boys' accommodation for about 20 or 30 and part of the access way to the sauna, he said.
Mr Pickard said the building was fully insured and a meeting would be held with insurers and engineers later this week to assess the situation.
No estimate of the damage would be known until after that.
He was not sure of the total value of the facility but estimated it would be about $500,000.
The camp was closed and any organisations with bookings were being contacted and advised of the situation. Some could be referred to the trust's other facilities at the Tautuku Outdoor Education Centre in the Catlins or the Sutton Camp near Middlemarch.
Mr Pickard was confident the trust's plan would be to re-establish, but "what form that will take and how is up in the air".
The trust would have to fully assess the risks at the site and nothing would be done until the whole area had dried out - "it's just too dangerous".
The pine forest behind the lodge was milled by Wenita Forest Products about a year ago.
Asked if that might have destabilised the ground, chief executive Dave Cormack said the slip was more likely to have been caused by excessive rain.
"When you have this sort of rain, nothing is 100% certain. Even land under trees is likely to go."
