Natasha at about 19 years old. Photo / Adam Pearse
"I just wish it was a dream. It's not something I ever want to see ever again, especially when it's one of your good friends."
These are the words of the woman who first found Natasha Michelle Roys after she was killed by a free-rolling vehicle early on New Year's Day on the Karikari Peninsula.
And Natasha's mother Jennifer says she feels as if she is "in a tunnel and there's no end".
Natasha, 43, who worked as a Northpower GIS technician, had travelled from Whangārei on Tuesday (New Year's Eve) to celebrate the occasion with fellow Northpower employee and friend Krystal Newby, with plans to go crayfish diving on January 1.
After a fun-filled night of dancing and laughs at Newby's bach, one road over from Tokerau Beach, Natasha retired to a two-person tent which sat at the bottom of a hill below Newby's house.
Newby, a Northpower vegetation programme manager, woke about 7.30am on New Year's Day to find their four-wheel-drive vehicle - which was parked by the house - had rolled down the hill, crashing into Natasha's tent and the nearby fence.
"I ran inside and got my husband, we went down and realised that she was still in the tent," Newby said.
"He moved the car and then we both went in there and she was already passed away."
The incident is believed to have occurred after 2.30am on New Year's Day after it appeared the vehicle's handbrake failed.
Newby said the handbrake was still on when she first looked at the car, but that the vehicle had not yet been tested. She said the vehicle was used as an everyday car with a valid registration and warrant of fitness.
On Friday, a police spokeswoman said the death had been referred to the Coroner and inquiries into the circumstances of the incident were ongoing.
Newby, who has worked at Northpower for about 12 years, said she met Natasha on her first day of work about three years ago and they had been friends ever since.
"I remember the first day I met her and she was a very bright and bubbly girl.
"I'm going to miss her smiley face when I walk into work every day, I saw her every day, I talked to her every day ... and she's going to be missed by a lot of people at work."
On New Year's Day, Natasha's mother, Jennifer, unaware Natasha had died, was packing her suitcase as she prepared to go on a cruise around Asia with her husband Trevor.
Jennifer, who was retired living in McLeod Bay, said she felt "empty" and "lost" after her daughter's death.
"It's just like I'm in a tunnel and there's no end to it ... and then all of a sudden, I just feel so terrible, I just burst into tears and shake," she said.
"It's like you see these things on TV and in the paper and you say, 'Oh that poor family', but when it's you, there's just no way to describe it."
Natasha had one older brother, Brett, and no children.
Her passing was the latest in a line of tragedies inflicted on Jennifer's family. When she was young, Jennifer's mother died and she was raised with her two siblings by her father Bill.
About six years ago, Jennifer's youngest brother died a year before her father died of cancer.
"That's what my husband said: 'It's not fair Jen, you do everything for everyone and yet you get the raw end of it all'.
"I don't ever put people down and now I've lost my daughter in something that should never have happened."
Jennifer emphasised she did not hold anyone accountable for her daughter's death and hoped Natasha's friends were being supported in this time.
Jennifer described Natasha, who was born in Queenstown, as a bubbly and sporty person, who learned to snow-ski at the age of 2 and waterski at 7.
After the family relocated to Wellington, Natasha attended Tawa College before moving to Auckland and completing a business degree at Massey University's Albany campus.
After university, Natasha worked alongside her mother at the then National Bank before moving to Australia and Canada, working a number of different jobs.
After a short stint back in New Zealand and in Australia - where she managed a rural hotel - Natasha came to stay with her parents, who had built a home in McLeod Bay, before she moved into Whangārei to work at Northpower.
"She called [the McLeod Bay house] her happy place. She loved it here in this house," Jennifer said.
"It's horrible. I'm certainly going to miss her going shopping, going for lunch and coffee, sitting out on the deck with a bottle of bubbles."
Jennifer said Natasha continued her sporting ways in Whangārei and was a keen explorer of the Whangārei Heads walking tracks, as well as regularly attending the gym and pilates.
"She liked living here because there was lots of places to go running ... she's hiked all round the bush around here, she thought they were marvellous," she said.
"She loved that and that's why this is so tragic, people do awful things and she never hurt anyone.
"When she was around, it was bright and cheery ... she'd always come up to you, even in the middle of town, put her arm around you and give you a kiss, 'Gidday Mum', she'd say."
While the pain of her daughter's death was difficult to bear, Jennifer said she was glad Natasha had lived life to the full.
"I just think, especially now losing Natasha, life is too short so you need to make the most of every day and in [Natasha's] life, I suppose she did."
On Friday, Northland police senior sergeant Ian Row said the incident on January 1 was a "very, very horrifically unfortunate accident".
"I don't usually use the word accident but this one was. For some reason the handbrake seems to have failed."
The man then went on to kick a police officer while being walked to a patrol car.