By MONIQUE DEVEREUX
Kerry and Christine Dalmon lived for their family and were "always doing family things together."
It was during a family holiday near Taupo on Tuesday that a head-on road smash claimed the lives of the Hastings couple and left their five children orphans.
Amyas Dalmon, aged 27, saw his father and stepmother just before the couple headed off on their trip on Monday. They were going fishing, and Mr Dalmon jun said they would have been camping "somewhere around Taupo - wherever the fish were good."
Amyas Dalmon and his 28-year-old brother, Wayne, are children from his father's previous marriage. Yesterday, he said he could not have imagined better parents.
"They were just really good people, great parents. They always made sure their children were looked after and sheltered."
Kerry and Christine Dalmon died when their family van and a car collided on State Highway 1 at Waitahanui, 10km south of Taupo.
The car's driver, Shirley Paice, 69, of Otahuhu, also died in the crash.
The Dalmons' children were in the van, but survived. Five-year-old Penelope, who was sitting in the front between her parents, was the most seriously hurt, but was in a stable condition after surgery in Waikato Hospital last night.
Jennifer, 16, Tracey, 14, and Jon-Michael, 7, were airlifted to Waikato Hospital with serious injuries.
One of the girls suffered a cracked vertebra, the other a broken leg.
Three-year-old Samuel was not hurt and is staying with relatives in Hamilton. The family were all wearing seatbelts.
The dead couple's sister-in-law, Marilyn Dalmon, said the support from the community and the couple's friends had been amazing.
Details on where the children would live were undecided, she said, but she understood Mrs Dalmon's family were handling the legalities.
The couple both grew up in Hawkes Bay. Mr Dalmon's family live mostly in Hastings and his wife's in Waipukurau.
Mr Dalmon, 50, had worked as a prison officer at the Hawkes Bay Regional Prison for almost two years.
Yesterday, a Department of Corrections spokesman said the prison staff were in deep shock.
Mrs Dalmon home-schooled her children and the family were very involved with their church.
Jennifer and Tracey are accomplished piano players.
to the family in Hastings for seven years, said they were always friendly but kept to themselves.
"They are such a lovely looking family," she said.
Funeral details have yet to be worked out.
'Great parents' die on family camp trip
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