Quad bike rolls on top of crash victim

File photo / Wairarapa Times Age

A woman who died after her quad bike rolled on top of her has been described as a "nice country lady" who loved animals.

Sue Ferguson, 65, was towing a trailer of hay on her 16ha farm in Gammon Rd, Awarua, south of Kaikohe in the Far North, about 1.30pm on Monday.

She was trying to negotiate a steep part of a hill when her quad bike overturned and landed on top of her.

Neighbour Helen Enright said Ms Ferguson's mother, who was aged in her 80s, had been visiting from outside the Kaikohe area.

"Her mum stayed with her a lot, did the cooking, the domestic side of it, was just there when she'd come home. I think [Ms Ferguson] had been gone too long and she went looking for her ... she tried to help her but I think she had already died.

"We couldn't believe it. It shouldn't have happened to her."

The Department of Labour is investigating the accident.

Ms Ferguson moved to the farm from Matakohe, in lower Northland, about 18 months ago.

"She's done real wonders with it," Mrs Enright said. "She turned it from quite a run-down place ... it's not a big place but she made it look really nice. She had a lot of fencing done, she made it real homely."

Another neighbour, Karey Pulman, told the Herald that Ms Ferguson had sheep, cattle, horses and about 10 dogs on the lifestyle block.

"She absolutely loved her animals. She was just a nice, chatty neighbour," she said.

"She never caused any trouble, she never upset anyone. She did keep to herself a bit.

"She was just a nice country lady that pottered about."

Mrs Pulman said she came home on Monday to find a rescue helicopter on the street.

"We've got a lot of logging trucks up here too so we weren't entirely sure what had happened, whether it had been something to do with the logging trucks.

"It wasn't until my brother from Wellington rang us and said 'Are you okay? I've seen on the internet that a Gammon Rd woman has died'."

Sergeant Mike Plant of the Kaikohe police said Ms Ferguson was an experienced quad bike rider.

"The conditions were very, very greasy and wet. We have had a lot of rain up here and I would be quite confident in saying it probably contributed to the accident."

- Additional reporting: NZPA