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Tauranga teenager Daisy Fernandez was last seen skipping and giggling as she and her girlfriend celebrated New Year's Eve on a Northland west coast beach.
Moments later the pair lay seriously injured on Ripiro Beach at Glinks Gully, 17km southwest of Dargaville, after a motorbike racing along the dark sand without headlights ploughed into them about 9.30pm.
Daisy, aged 13, died in Whangarei Hospital yesterday morning, just a few days before her 14th birthday this Friday.
Her friend, also aged 13, remains stable in hospital with serious injuries, which the Herald understands include a broken leg and smashed hip.
A 15-year-old boy, who was driving the motocross bike and suffered minor injuries, has been interviewed by police over the crash and been referred to youth aid.
The police serious crash unit is investigating the fatality.
A Fernandez family spokesman said Daisy was a bubbly girl full of hope for the future.
She was about to start her fourth form year at Otumoetai College in Tauranga, where she lived with her parents Craig and Sandi and her brother Elliott. She was an active member of the Bethlehem Baptist Youth Group.
Daisy had loved dance, speech and drama and had wanted to pursue a career along those lines.
The spokesman said there had been increasing concerns about the disregard to the safety of others shown by users of vehicles on the beach. Complaints had been made to the police on the day of the accident.
Friends of Daisy told the Herald yesterday they had warned the motorbike rider to stop racing along the beach.
Alex Vine, on holiday from Auckland, said he had spoken to the rider and asked him to slow down.
"I told him to go slow. Next minute he took off spraying rocks in our faces ... He was showing off."
Everest Stewart, 14, said she could hear the bike "scream" as it flew towards the girls.
"The bike had been going hard out."
Chad Reid, of Kaitaia, said he was the last to see Daisy with her best friend Claudia, who had come on holiday with her from Tauranga.
"They were talking and stuff then linked arms and ran off and sat down on the sand ... then I heard a whining noise from the motorbike."
A friend, Shontell Revell, said their parents had warned them to stay on the sandhills after dark.
She said Daisy was a slim, pretty and cheerful girl who was happy and excited because it was New Year's Eve.
Shontell, aged 15, had held Claudia on the beach as she lay injured approximately 15 metres apart from Daisy.
"She couldn't remember being hit. She was trying to keep it together, she was stressing out for Daisy."
An emergency medicine specialist, Dr Chip Jaffurs from Whangarei Hospital, who was staying in a nearby bach, and three nurses had tended to the injured girls.
Locals drove their cars down to circle the accident site with their headlights on so the health workers could see what they were doing.
Daisy was flown to Whangarei Hospital by the Northland Emergency Services Trust helicopter in a critical condition and Claudia taken by road ambulance.
The close-knit Glinks Gully community was in shock yesterday as they gathered around a flower and shell makeshift memorial on the sand near where the girls were hit.
The Fernandez family is well known in the area, where they have a long history going back over a century. Extended family members still spend summer holidays there. Daisy's grandfather was known as the Mayor of Glinks Gully.
She died on her grandmother's birthday, New Year's Day, who was with her family on Monday.
The community has cancelled its annual New Year's week of sports events like running races, fishing and cricket out of respect for the family.
