Peter Harland had been driving the same old route on his New Zealand Post delivery run for eight years.
From Palmerston North, he would drive his truck along State Highway 1, transporting parcels destined for Hamilton, Taupo, the Bay of Plenty and Auckland.
The father of four took on the
job after he gave up running the Rangitikei Tavern, and with a passion for trucks it was one he enjoyed.
Then on Friday night, as he drove through Mangaweka, south of Taihape, a rental car carrying two Singapore tourists is believed to have crossed the centreline and collided with his truck.
It flipped, slid 50m down a bank and landed nose-down in the creek.
Peter James Harland, 53, from Bulls, and the tourists died at the scene.
Mr Harland had been looking forward to his daughter's 21st birthday this month.
Rangitikei Tavern owner Mark Cording said the crash had sent the Bulls community into shock, as Mr Harland was well loved and widely known.
Mr Cording bought the hotel from him several years ago, and when Mr Harland was there he was a great supporter of the Bulls community.
He was also a past president of the Bulls Rugby Club. "He sponsored everything that was going."
Mangaweka chief fire officer Rex Noble was called to the crash at 8.30pm.
It took a while to find Mr Harland because the cab had folded up and had gone under the trailer unit. The other car was such a wreck it looked as though "a bomb had gone off".
Mr Noble said tarsealing was being done on the bridge where the crash occurred. "My opinion is that roadworks were involved."
New Zealand Post spokesman Ian Long said on Saturday that about 1000 items had been recovered from the truck, many of them damaged.
The truck was carrying about 4000 items, including international mail, and this week New Zealand Post staff will work to retrieve more of the packages, which could be presents for Christmas.
* A motorcyclist died after he crashed in Swanson, West Auckland, at 1.30pm yesterday.
No other vehicle was involved.
A second motorcyclist was killed in an accident near Pukekohe.
At Oringi, south of Dannevirke, a woman driver died after her car was hit by a freight train at a level crossing yesterday morning.
