A motorcyclist who died in a crash near Turangi on Labour Weekend was a "larger than life person who lived life to the full", according to friends.
Palmerston North mother-of-two Halina Adamiak, 47, died at the scene of the crash on State Highway 41 last Saturday.
Adamiak, an experienced motorbike rider, came off her bike going round a bend but it is not clear what caused the crash. No other vehicles were involved.
Adamiak was following her partner at the time, about 11.15am, at the southern tip of Lake Taupo. Police said a doctor and nurse stopped to administer CPR but Adamiak passed away.
She leaves behind two teenage sons, Roman and Halam.
Colleague Rebecca Hennrie, who started a Givealittle page to raise money for Adamiak's sons, said her friend was larger than life.
"She was the definition of the person that lights up a room, just by walking in.
"Her enthusiasm and personality cheered up everyone who came into contact with her."
Hennrie said the Doctor Who fanatic who loved Halloween as much as she loved her family and friends, worked at KiwiRail.
"Halina was incredibly proud when she got the job as lube operator at KiwiRail. She loved the work and the people she worked with."
She also had a "crazy" sense of humour, Hennrie said.
"She decided that after getting the job she was to be called 'The Goddess of Grease'. This morphed into 'Slick Chick'.
"There was just no-one quite like Halina. Life will be bleaker without her."
Hennrie said Adamiak's parents, two sisters and two children were bereft over her death.
Another colleague who did not want to be named described Adamiak as "one in a million" and a "diamond in the rough".
"She was a lovely person. Everyone got on with her. She's real out there. Loves spiders and into Halloween. She was into Pink Floyd and things like that. A bit of a rocker I suppose."
Instead of putting flowers on Adamiak's coffin at her funeral in Palmerston North on Friday, mourners were given rubber spiders to place on the casket in a tribute to her love of the creepy crawlies.
He said Adamiak worked at KiwiRail many years ago as a train manager and returned to the company after getting married and having children.
"She'd been back with the company about four or five years, working with the track team out in the yards, welding the rails together and that sort of thing. In the last six months she got on the grease truck, which lays a thin layer of grease of the rails."
She would have celebrated her birthday on November 8.
It's thought Adamiak and her new partner were going away for Labour Weekend when the accident happened at Tokaanu.
The road was closed and Adamiak's death was the second of the long weekend.
The Serious Crash Unit is investigating the cause.