A cyclist is dead after a collision with a vehicle at Mangatawhiri, on State Highway 2, 13km north east of Pokeno.
Auckland police said the accident happened at 9.30 am, a few kilometres south of the "Castle" dairy.
Emergency services working at the scene closed SH2, the main road from Auckland to
the Coromandel and to SH27 which serves Tauranga and eastern Waikato.
The route is heavily used by holidaymakers at this time of year.
Traffic from Auckland was this morning being diverted at the southern foot of the Bombay Hills at the intersection of SH1 and SH2.
The death brings the holiday period road toll to 16, following two fatalities yesterday.
Yesterday afternoon a man was killed when the car he was driving hit a tree on a road off State Highway 16 near Whenuapai shortly before 4 pm.
Two passengers were injured, one critically and one moderately, said police northern communications centre Inspector Gary Allcock. The road was closed for about three hours.
And yesterday morning a 69 year-old Hastings man was killed when his car failed to take a bend and crashed into a tree 4km south of Waikato town Matamata. He was Fetaiamauso Tuivaiti.
The accident was discovered at 8.15 am and the man's 12-year-old granddaughter taken to hospital in a serious but stable condition.
Police yesterday released the name of a woman who died following a Christmas Day crash in Takapuna, Auckland.
She was Alice Otton, 87, a passenger in a car which was hit side-on at an intersection.
The official holiday period began at 4 pm on Monday and ends at 6 am on January 3.
- NZPA, Herald staff
