The unconfirmed final holiday road toll stands at 18, up 50 percent on the previous year.
The death of a young female tourist from Germany yesterday was the last one in a period from 4pm on December 23 to 6am today.
There were 12 deaths during the same period last year and 13 the year before.
National road policing manager Superintendent Paula Rose said she wasn't expecting the toll to increase and police would review the circumstances of the fatal crashes over the coming months.
She told Radio New Zealand speed and alcohol appeared to be prevalent factors, and officers would continue with a policy of lower tolerance to speeding drivers at holiday weekends and "up the ante'' around alcohol testing.
"Some of these crashes are very much, dare I say it, driver error.''
Ms Rose rejected criticism from motoring writer Clive Matthew-Wilson that the lower tolerance of speeding drivers was not working.
She said feedback from police and then public was that tougher enforcement was making travel smoother, with fewer people overtaking.
But she agreed with Mr Matthew-Wilson - and Waikato road policing boss Inspector Leo Tooman - that median barriers or wires could help reduce crashes and death.
"I'd be first in line to say dividing you from the traffic coming the other way, especially at 100kmh, is an absolutely first-class way of improving roading design.''
She said the installation of such measures was down to the New Zealand Transport Agency and local authorities.
Yesterday's death was on State Highway One north of Hunterville in the lower North Island about 12.45pm.
The German was a passenger in a van travelling north towards Taihape. It collided head-on with a ute that police said crossed the centre line.
She died at the scene and her male driver was flown by rescue helicopter to Palmerston North Hospital with serious injuries, including multiple fractures.
The ute driver, also male, was taken to Wanganui Hospital with less severe injuries.
THE HOLIDAY DEAD
Saturday 24
1 - Daniel James Mercer, 20, died after his car ran into the Avon River in Christchurch.
2 - Gareth Toby Waller, 29, died when his vehicle rolled into the Waihi River near Geraldine in South Canterbury.
3 - A 79-year-old woman died when a car and light truck collided on State Highway 3, south of Waitara, in Taranaki.
Christmas Day
4 and 5 - Sisters Merepeka Morehu Clark, 14, and Brooklyn Morehu Clark, 13, died when the speeding car they were in passed another vehicle on Welcome Bay Rd, Tauranga. and collided head-on with a red Mitsubishi ute.
6 - Jasmine Gray, 52, died after sustaining life-threatening injuries when she was hit by a courier van while walking at State Highway 1 in Horotiu, north of Hamilton.
December 27
7 - An elderly woman died from injuries sustained as she was run over while walking in the Northland town of Wellsford.
8 - Carol Dawn Gibson, 70, from Lower Hutt died in a collision on the Desert Road north of Waiouru.
December 28
9 and 10 - An 82-year-old from Dunedin and a 53-year-old woman from Germany died when a car and campervan collided on the Haast highway.
December 29
11 - A 21-year-old died in Woolston, Christchurch, when his car collided with a lamppost.
December 30
12 and 13 - Stephanie Anne Fox, 18, and Lance Kevin Reilly, 39, from Titahi Bay died and several people, including three children, were injured in a crash at an intersection on State Highway 1 just north of Paraparaumu.
New Year's Eve
14 and 15 - Gary Alexander Benseman, 22, and Brian James Cooper, 23, of Blenheim, were killed when the car they were travelling in crashed into a power pole and burst into flames.
16 - New Year's Day - A female pedestrian died when she was hit by a truck near Auckland Airport.
17 - Viv White, 59, of Tiraumea, died as she drove from Masterton to Alfredton.
January 3
18 - A German tourist died after the van she was in collided with a ute north of Hunterville.
