Four members of a Rotorua family died instantly when their car crossed a grass median strip and smashed head-on into a truck south of Auckland.
Korean woman Eun Sook Kim, aged 38, her two daughters Ji Hyun, 10, and Soo Min, 7, and her 30-year-old niece Yu Hyun Cho died on Saturday at 11.10 am just south of the Ramarama State Highway 1 turn-off.
The crash closed the highway in both directions for more than four hours.
The four, originally from Korea, were travelling to Auckland to meet Mrs Cho's father.
He was due to arrive on a flight from Korea.
The crash has cost Mrs Kim's husband his entire immediate family.
Senior Constable Stu Kearns said police did not know what caused the white 1985 car Mrs Kim was driving to cross the 15m-wide grass median strip.
Police have spoken to only one witness who saw the crash and Senior Constable Kearns, of the Ellerslie motorways unit, appealed for other motorists with information to come forward.
The truck driver was shaken but not hurt.
Senior Constable Kearns said: "Multiple fatalities like this are a terrible loss, and certainly a terrible loss to the family involved.
"We have not had a multiple death like this on the motorways for a long time."
Meanwhile, police have released the name of an Auckland man who died when his car and a truck crashed head-on on State Highway 1, 20km south of Tokoroa, on Friday night.
He was 19-year-old Abu Saad Hakim.
Sergeant Peter Simpson, of Tokoroa, said Mr Hakim's car was overtaking another vehicle when it collided with the truck just before 9.30 pm. The driver of the truck suffered minor injuries and was taken to Tokoroa Hospital.
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