Sheree Wagener is one of many who will long remember Marion Andrew and Pauline Ogilvy, who were fatally injured in a two-car crash on Houhora Heads Rd on Tuesday last week.
She posted a 2016 photo of the "two old girls" at a Pink Ribbon breakfast at Raio Hall on Facebook, saying Andrew was taking a break from laughing all morning while Ogilvy held the room's attention with her "big beautiful personality".
"These tight-knit old girls had seemed unbreakable," she said, and losing them had left a huge hole.
Chilean national Dante Felipe Basaez Vera, 28, appeared before Judge Deidre Orchard in the Kaitaia District Court on Monday where he denied two charges of careless driving causing death and one of careless driving causing injury.
Betsy Young described the two women as "beautiful wāhine toa" who would be missed. Jacquie Bates said their voices and laughter would long be heard at Houhora.