Police are praising motorists for their "slow and careful" driving over the long weekend, which looked set to be the lowest Queen's Birthday road toll in 50 years.
One person died during the holiday period, 28-year-old Aroha Ormsby, of Tokomaru Bay. The official toll period ended at 6am today.
Ten people died and 159 were injured during Queen's Birthday last year, the highest toll in 13 years.
Despite foul weather and poor driving conditions, the number of crashes dropped from 341 last year to 292, and fewer were serious.
Police said factors such as the bad weather and a crackdown on speed forced people to slow down.
Counties Manukau road policing manager Inspector Heather Wells, who was out patrolling yesterday, praised drivers' efforts.
"It makes for a pleasant change and it shows that people can drive slow and careful," she said.
"Speed does kill and people sometimes forget that they're in this big vehicle and it can cause accidents. People got that message and I praise them for their efforts."
For the first time during a holiday, police announced a blitz on speed as a temporary measure to keep the roads safe. Speed was found to be a factor in many fatal crashes at Easter.
Police were ticketing drivers caught doing more than 4km/h over the 100km/h highway limit.
During Easter 12 people were killed, the highest Easter toll in 18 years. The speed tolerance is now back to a 5km/h tolerance outside schools and a 10km/h tolerance for other areas.
National road policing manager Superintendent Paula Rose said the low holiday toll might well be a reflection of lower speeds.
"But also of drivers just taking that extra bit of care - it can make all the difference between life and death in some cases," she said.
"We have had a busy weekend but everyone has played a part and together we have made this weekend safer for everyone," said Ms Rose.
She told Radio New Zealand this morning that drivers self-policed their own speed, which was the aim of the blitz.
"We don't want to catch people, we want people to choose to do the right thing. On this weekend we have had a lot of people making some really good choices."
Ms Wells said holidaymakers were only just trickling back into towns around the country and so the roads were quiet as people had chosen to head home early while the weather was fine.
Late last night, high winds were buffeting State Highway 6 between Harihari and Haast, while the Paekakariki Hill road north of Wellington was closed because of a slip.
The MetService said it was expecting showers and some thunderstorms for most of the country overnight but it expected the weather to improve today.
In the South Island there would be rain or showers, falling as snow above 400m. Snow was also likely to fall on the Desert Road today.
- additional reporting NZPA
Queen's Birthday road toll
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