St John acting district operations manager, Mark Going, said the driver of another vehicle suffered serious injuries while two children were treated for minor injuries. Initial police investigations showed the rental car crossed the centre line and collided with the other vehicles.
It was the second road fatality on that stretch of road involving an overseas tourist in two months. On November 4, a male English tourist on his way to the Bay of Islands died after a head-on smash between two cars near the intersection of Totara Rd and SH1 at Oakleigh.
Friday's crash has pushed Northland's road toll this year to 22 compared with 19 for the whole of last year.
The police serious crash unit is investigating.
Further south at Mata, one person was taken to hospital after a nearly head-on crash between a fuel tanker and a car about 12.20pm yesterday. Police said a car heading north crossed the centre line and came into the path of the fuel tanker with trailer headed in the opposite direction at the intersection of SH1 and Cotton Rd.
The car landed in a paddock following the crash and its driver was transported to Whangarei Hospital with unspecified injuries. The tanker driver escaped unhurt. Traffic was not disrupted.
On Saturday morning, an 82-year-old British woman drowned in the Bay of Islands - becoming the fourth drowning nationally in the Christmas/New Year period.
Resident Claire Christie said the woman was a family friend and had been living in a granny flat on her property for a number of years. Ms Christie said the elderly woman had been out for a dawn walk and it seemed, upon returning home, she had suffered a medical event and fallen into the pond where she drowned.
Police are in the process of informing the woman's next of kin.
"It's been a long day," Ms Christie said. "She lived in a flat here out on our place and was a very dear friend I've been looking after for about eight years."
