KEY POINTS:
Despite delays as holidaymakers returned to the main centres, the Christmas-New Year period finished with the lowest road toll since 1980-81.
When the official Christmas-New Year holiday period closed at 6am this morning, nine people had been killed on the roads. The period began at 4pm on Friday December 22.
Traffic was heavy near main centres, but the holiday road toll was less than half that for the same period last year when 22 people died.
The 2006 road toll, at 387, was the lowest in 46 years.
Inspector John McClelland said although the figure was good, there was still room for improvement.
"There's certainly some work to be done, not only for police but for general motorists as well to do things right on the roads," he said.
Although the official holiday period has finished, Mr McClelland expected roads to be busy for the rest of the week as many people were likely to return home at the weekend.
He urged caution for those still to travel.
"Really, it's just the same as always and that means planning your trip, being patient and taking it easy and maybe even altering your travel time so there's a better spread of traffic flow," he said.
"People should always factor the weather in their travel.
"And those with caravans and trailers should move to the side to avoid holding others up."
Motorists in the major centres experienced some delays in getting home but traffic generally flowed well with no serious accidents reported.
Southbound motorists from the Bay of Islands and Northland were reduced to a crawl through Wellsford with traffic backed up to Te Hana.
Delays were reported for motorists going to Wellington between Otaki and Manakau. There were also reports of hold-ups south of Dannevirke.
A spokeswoman at the Southern Communications centre said there were no delays or problems on roads in the South Island.
