Friends share memories of special students

Mourners arrive for the service. Photo / Doug Sherring

The grieving friends of three exchange students who died when their van rolled off the road laughed and cried last night as they gathered at the University of Auckland's chapel to share stories of their Kiwi adventures.

Boston University students Daniela Rosanna Lekhno, 20, Roch Jauberty, 21, and Austin Brashears, 21, died on their way to the Tongariro Crossing when their van hit gravel and rolled off State Highway 46, south of Turangi, last Saturday.

Fellow student Stephen Houseman was charged this week with seven counts of careless driving.

With his broken arm in a sling, Houseman stood at the front of the chapel as friends wrapped their arms around him in support.

Houseman was the first of about a dozen students to pay tribute, speaking of pleasant days spent playing basketball with Roch and Brashears.

Other friends on the exchange programme spoke of Daniela's love for coffee, Roch's dance moves and Austin's goal to get a role in The Hobbit, which is being filmed here.

Daniela's colleague at Westpac Bank, Dan Adams, said she had a thirst to know everything and was too smart for banking. "I think she would have been a fantastic writer," Adams said, "and possibly a terrible banker."

Austin's father Thomas Brashears had flown over from the US to be with his son.

Fighting back tears, he thanked mourners at the chapel for their support and said he was still looking for God's blessings in the wake of tragedy.

Critically injured student Meg Theriault, 21, was unable to make the memorial service and remains in Waikato Hospital in a stable condition.

Waikato Hospital spokeswoman Mary Anne Gill said doctors removed the breathing tube which she had been on since her admission into the intensive care unit after surgery on Sunday morning.

Meg's parents Todd and Deb Theriault said they had spoken to Houseman's parents and could understand the pain they were going through.

"We understand there needs to be a court process and we support it, but that could have been any one of our kids at the wheel," they said.

"This was an accident and all of our kids were pursuing their dream.

"Nobody was intentionally doing anything that would harm anyone."