KEY POINTS:
A 17-year-old schoolgirl, just 200m from home. An 85-year-old grandfather driving home after Christmas dinner. A student who returned from a year overseas, nine days ago. A volunteer fire fighter. A foreign police inspector.
These are the people, and the faces, of the Christmas/New Year road toll, which
stood at 17, just hours before the official holiday period finishes at 6am tomorrow.
"We just can't come to grips with it. Holley was so full of life ... a real tomboy," says Jackie Geck, whose daughter was killed at 8pm on Christmas Eve.
Holley, a student at Pukekohe High School who lived with her parents on their farm, was driving to her brother's house, 2km away.
Police are still unsure why her car crashed into a ditch. Holley was wearing a seatbelt, had not been drinking and was not using her cellphone.
"A neighbour heard the crash and called 111," said Senior Sergeant Rob Arnold. "Her father's tractor was then used to try to pull the car out.
"It was upside down, they couldn't get the doors open. Her father was there but when they found her, he was kept back."
It is likely Holley drowned. It had rained the night before and there was more water than usual in the ditch, Arnold said.
"It's devastating. It is horrific that we have to drive past that spot every day," says Jackie Geck.
Holley was also an organ donor. "So someone at least had a lucky Christmas," said her mother.
Two people died on Christmas Day, including David James Hill, 23. He was a passenger in a car that crashed into a bank near Morrinsville - police say alcohol and speed were factors.
Later on Christmas Day, a bad call at an intersection killed James Philip Vesey, 85, at Gordonton, north of Hamilton.
He had just spent Christmas Day at his son Ken's Cambridge home with his grandchildren and was on his way home to Manukau when he pulled into the path of a southbound car.
"We had a good Christmas. He never liked to stay, never liked to cause a fuss, he liked to go home," said Ken.
"He was a confident driver and he was a careful driver. We don't know what happened but I never had any concerns about him when he left that night."
Two people more used to dealing with emergencies and saving lives were killed on our roads.
Hicks Bay volunteer firefighter Ray Barrett, 62, died last Saturday as he travelled to an accident on the East Cape.
On New Year's Day, 50-year-old Swedish police inspector Goran Oskarsson, on holiday in New Zealand with his wife and family, was killed when he missed a corner at Tongariro in the central North Island.
Oskarsson's 45-year-old wife was flown to Waikato Hospital with head injuries and their three teenage children were taken to hospital by ambulance with cuts and bruises.
Three motorcyclists were killed in the most horrific crash of the period.
Martyn Hartley, 48, died after overtaking a line of traffic on State Highway 75 between Christchurch and Akaroa and hitting another bike. His pillion passenger, wife Kaye Hartley, 35, died several hours later in Christchurch Hospital.
Nigel Hannington, 44, was riding the other bike and was carrying his wife Jacqui as a pillion passenger.
Hannington was killed instantly in the crash. His wife remains in a stable condition in Christchurch Hospital's intensive care unit.
Hannington's brother David was riding in front of the couple and was the first bike to swerve to avoid Hartley.
"There were three of us on bikes heading to Diamond Harbour for a ride. We rode over there a lot on Saturdays and Sundays. It was our favourite ride," he said.
Te Atatu man Paul Christopher Fowler, 43, lost control of his station wagon at Kumeu, north of Auckland, at 10am last Sunday.
His sister Joanne said he was on his way to Riverhead Forest. "He often went there to collect bark and pine cones for mum's fire," she said.
"People called Paul the gentle giant. He was very generous and didn't know how to say no to people. He loved cars ... and was a very good artist, he was very quiet but he warmed to people."
Fowler worked as a labeller for a local herb grower.
Palmerston North teenager Henry Kong was returning home from a game of golf with a friend when he was killed in a head on collision at 4.30pm on Monday.
Linda Kong said her brother arrived back in New Zealand just nine days ago after a gap year in Europe.
"He wanted to go back overseas, but he planned on going to Otago University and study sport and nutrition [in 2009]," she said.
"They had only just left the club when it happened. "
The next day, 28-year-old Lauren Leigh Stoneley from Christchurch died instantly after the car her boyfriend was driving left the road and hit a tree on State Highway 72 near Methven.
The pair were on their way to Queenstown so Lauren could introduce her boyfriend to her father, who is ill with cancer.
Lauren, who was educated in Queenstown and Timaru and was a marching enthusiast, has a motto on her oldfriends.co.nz website: "Working hard, playing hard! Long may it last!"
Fifty-one-year-old Lindsay Hale of Balclutha died after crashing at Owaka on New Year's Day.
Maurice Hale said his son was a "hard working sort of fellow".
"We had gone fishing together on Sunday, thank goodness for that."
Hale had two daughters and had written a letter to one in Australia about a month before he died.
"He never got around to posting it I guess," his father said. "We read it - it is really quite moving.
"This is really traumatic for us. He had a great sense of humour, we got on amazingly."
A day later, Otara man Rihari King, 20, died when his car crossed the centreline on State Highway 7 at Whakamarama, 22km southwest of Tauranga, and collided with oncoming traffic.
He had been heading to Mt Maunganui to meet friends.
King was trapped in his Subaru WRX and died at the scene.
His brother Steve said he had spent several days camping near Gisborne with friends from his former school, St Kentigern College
"It was an annual camping trip for a group of St Kentigern's old boys," he said.
"They camped for a few days at Gisborne and then he bought all their stuff back to Auckland so he could drive back with an empty car and bring more of his mates home.
"He unpacked all their stuff, booked a motel at Mt Maunganui and then he left ... and that was it."
Steve said his brother worked as a storeman at a printing company and planned to go to university this year to study civil engineering, although he had not decided where he would study.
King's parents hoped to travel back to Auckland with his body last night.
The Christmas/New Year holiday road toll 12 months ago was 18.
* The road toll
1 Holley Geck, 17
2 David Hill, 23
3 James Philip Vesey, 85
4 Ray Barrett, 62
5 Martyn Hartley, 48
6 Nigel Hannington, 44
7 Kaye Hartley, 35
8 Paul Fowler, 44
9 Henry Kong, 19
10 David James Ertel, 53
11 Lauren Leigh Stoneley
12 Raymond Douglas Brown, 33
13 Lindsay Hale, 51
14 Goran Oskarsson, 50
15 Peter Lockett, 48
16 Rihari King, 20
17 Patrick Kirikowhai Karauti, 69
