Bus crash victims Sione Lelenoa, Viliami Palavi perform at last night's fundraising concert. Photo / Supplied
A man has died after a motorcycle crash in the South Island, bringing the number of deaths to 12, the same as last year's holiday road toll.
The latest crash happened just before 6am near the intersection of Partridge and Shortcut roads in Cromwell.
The man died at the scene.
Diversions were in place and Shortcut Rd is closed between State Highway 8b and State Highway 6.
The road was likely to remain closed for some time while police investigate.
Senior Sergeant Ian Kerrisk said it was too early to speculate on cause of the crash.
Last year's holiday road toll was 12 dead from 244 reported injury crashes. With six days still left before the period ends on January 4, the country has already equalled that toll.
On Christmas Eve, the Mailefihi Siu'ilikutapu College Brass Band lost two members and 44 were injured when the bus they were in crashed 100m down a bank in Gisborne.
Last night, they played for the first time since the crash at the House of Breakthrough Church, in memory of 11-year-old Sione Taumalolo and Talita Moimoi Fifita, 33.
Gisborne local Kristina Williams said about 400 people attended the concert, to raise money for the families of the dead and the school.
"It was special and moving. The passion that these people have is amazing. I've never experienced anything like it."
The band members, who Williams said were aged between about 11 and 17, played with the few instruments they could salvage from the bus, which was recovered from the site on Wairoa Rd by a heavy-lift crane yesterday.
"More than half of the instruments were completely damaged."
Williams said some of the group members had cuts on their faces and bandages.
"You could tell they had been through the wars."
Williams has set up a Givealittle page to help raise funds for the group that had been due to perform at a church service on Christmas Day.
Donations made by the Gisborne and wider Tongan and New Zealand communities have raised more than $35,000 on the page.
"It's just humbling,'' Williams said.
Air New Zealand is flying the band members from Gisborne to Auckland free today, so they can catch a connecting flight to Tonga.
Eight of the injured remain in hospital and there is concern for one, who has been in the intensive care unit in Waikato Hospital.
An 18-year-old boy, has lost a leg.
Police have been interviewing witnesses and the bus driver.
"The police serious crash unit is conducting an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash and, while this is ongoing, we are unable to speculate on the cause of the crash," said Tairawhiti area police commander Inspector Sam Aberahama.
"The investigation will include a full mechanical inspection of the bus, along with an assessment of road conditions and any other possible contributing factors."
The community is also rallying behind the family of the little girl who was run over in a driveway in Te Kauwhata on Boxing Day.
A Givealittle page was created for "beautiful, cheeky little girl" Tyler Te Ruru Ahurei Davis, 2, to raise money for funeral costs.
The page said the girl's death had "shaken the family and community to the core".
Meanwhile, the funerals of two of the teenagers killed in a horror smash in the early hours of Boxing Day will be held in Christchurch in the coming days.
Cole Troy Hull, Samuel James Drost and Lily Frances Moore, all 15-year-olds from Canterbury, died when a car they were in, being driven at high speed by a 14-year-old boy, crashed near Leeston.
The road toll was at 11 yesterday after a man was killed when a car and milk tanker collided in Hawera, South Taranaki.
• A man died after a motorcycle crash in Cromwell at 6am today.
• A man died in hospital yesterday after the car he was driving collided with a milk tanker in Hawera.
• A motorcyclist died in a crash at Pukerau, near Gore on December 27.
• Teenagers Cole Troy Hull, Samuel James Drost and Lily Frances Moore were killed in a crash near Leeston, early Monday. The car was being driven at high speed by an unlicensed 14-year-old boy, when it became airborne and smashed into a macrocarpa hedge, narrowly missing a concrete power pole.
• Another motorcyclist died at the scene after a collision with a car on Napier Rd in Ashhurst, Manawatu, on Boxing Day.
• Tyler Te Ruru Ahurei Davis, 2, was run over in a driveway in Te Kauwhata on Boxing Day. The toddler died on a public driveway, which meant the death is included in the official road toll.
• Lower Hutt man Clifford Irving, 66, was killed in a collision between a motorcycle and a ute on State Highway 2 in South Wairarapa on Christmas Day.
• A double fatality on Christmas Eve claimed the lives of Sione Taumalolo, 11, and Talita Moimoi, 33, when the bus they were in crashed down a 100m bank in Gisborne.
• The first fatality of the holiday period was Myung Wha Lim, 83, who died after being hit by a car in Takapuna on December 23.
The official holiday road period began at 4pm on December 23, and runs until 6am on January 4.
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