The now 64-year-old faces two charges for murder and of breaching a protection order by physically abusing the protected person through stabbing his former wife Zhimin Yang to death.
It is alleged she was stabbed repeatedly by her ex-husband.
Several members of the public - including a construction worker and woman driving past in a car - stopped to help Yang but she died at the scene.
Good Samaritan Peter Simpson stopped to help after Yang was stabbed and was later recognised by police with a bravery award.
The Massey man earlier told the Herald he thought Yang may have been a pedestrian who had been hit by a car But as he got closer he noticed she had been stabbed.
"I started talking to the victim and then she passed ... there was a gentleman way up the road who said that the [alleged killer] was leaving.
