Ms Smith's fiance, Jeff Brown, also of Christchurch, had been travelling behind her when the crash happened.
"She just came around the corner, it was almost like a gust of wind kept her more upright than she should have been.
"She just didn't make the corner, and once in the gravel, the bike stopped, she flipped off and went into the road." He said they had come up from Christchurch for a wedding in Kapiti on Saturday, and thought they'd experience the Rimutaka Hill Rd yesterday.
The group wanted to thank those who stopped to help. "A paediatrician, a vet, a midwife - we had everybody. It was great the amount of people who stopped."
Marion Pawlson, of Wellington, was the motorist who phoned 111. "It took ages for the person on the other end to figure out where I was calling from."
She agreed there was "really good response" from passersby.
