'She liked the bike and he said let's go for a scoot' - Motorway crash victims' sad story

Wellington photographer Dee McMahon. Photo / Facebook

A photographer who was killed when his motorbike hit a concrete median on a Wellington motorway at the weekend was taking his partner's son's girlfriend for a leisure ride, a friend says.

Well-known Wellington photographer Dee McMahon, and 18-year-old Natalia Austin from Featherston, were both killed when the motorbike they were travelling on crashed into the concrete median barrier near Wellington's Terrace Tunnel.

Despite efforts of paramedics, both Mr McMahon, and Ms Austin who was a passenger on the motorbike, died at the scene.

Peter Stobbart had been friends with Mr McMahon for 35 years, and has worked with his only son Dylan for the past 18 months.

Wellington photographer Dee McMahon. Photo / Facebook

"That's a sad story in itself, they were literally just having a Sunday meeting... she liked the bike and he said let's go for a scoot."

Mr Stobbart said over the past five years Mr McMahon had spent a lot of time on his Harley Davidson motorbike.

"Most Harley drivers are happy to chug along, he was no boy racer by any means, he was more of a take his time and smell the roses and have fun getting there.

"To hear that he had an accident that has taken him out was really quite a shocker for everybody."

This was not the first time Mr McMahon had had an accident on his bike - four years ago he was struck by a car at a Wellington intersection, after the car's elderly driver passed out at the wheel.

"His photographic business suffered quite considerably, there were a couple of years there where he was in and out of hospital. He was very lucky to get away without losing a leg.

"The unfortunate thing was he was coming up to the point where he was coming right and I suppose when he was on his motorbike, once he got it all repaired and up and running, he was a normal person, he didn't have a limp."

The popular photographer owned his own photographic business.

"He was [also] involved from the early days with the Phoenix football club, he was quite a common face to see on the side of the Westpac Stadium, shooting All Blacks and Hurricanes."

As well as this Mr McMahon was involved in fashion shoots, and would also photograph Wellington music festivals, Mr Stobbart said.

He said family and friends were still in shock following Sunday's accident.

"The bike was the one thing that gave him an equal footing with everybody, it was one of the pleasures he could get out and do at any time.

"Sunday was about catching up with the family and they were just basically going for a pleasure ride, it's not as though anybody expected this at all.

"You'd be hard pressed to find anybody that would have a bad word [to say], he was really professional at what he did.

"He was a laugh a minute, he was like a little terrier running around - absolutely in his element. His product was spectacular."

Mr Stobbart said he believed Mr McMahon's funeral would be held this Friday.

Meanwhile, tributes to Ms Austin have been made on her Facebook page by friends and former schoolmates from Kuranui College, where she finished last year.

She was working as a delicatessen assistant at Pain & Kershaw in Martinborough.

Pain & Kershaw owner Conor Kershaw said it had been a "terrible day" for them yesterday, "mainly among the young and junior teams".

"She was a girl taken far before her time."

He said she had been working at the supermarket for about eight months.

"It was her first full-time job outside of school." Mr Kershaw said she had been "inspiring" to the younger team members.

"She was the girl who had finished school, a local Wairarapa girl, had it all sorted out."

Additional reporting - Andrew Bonallack of the Wairarapa Times Age.