She was Kusum Rohit Kenia (60) of Mumbai, India.
The other six occupants of the vehicle were taken to hosptial, with two being discharged and four remaining in serious but stable conditions in Dunedin.
Mystery surrounds the reasons why the van, on its way to Wanaka's Puzzling World, veered off the road yesterday.
Mrs Kenia was killed when their Hertz rental van crashed into a ditch alongside State Highway 6, at Queensberry, about 12.45pm.
She is understood to have been a rear-seat passenger in the Toyota Hiace.
Emergency services freed two people trapped in the wreckage.
Three of the injured were flown to Dunedin Hospital, where they remained in a "serious condition'' last night.
Three with minor injuries were taken to Dunstan Hospital, near Clyde.
The van was one of two in a convoy carrying a Mumbai tour party of 14 from Queenstown Airport to Wanaka.
Tour guide Jaydeep Khira, of Gem Tours, said he was in the second vehicle and saw only the ‘‘last second'' as the van disappeared off the right side of the road, on a bend.
He did not know what caused the crash.
"The car just ... fell off the road, went off track ...''
The group was travelling to Wanaka to visit Puzzling World, Mr Khira said.
A Dunedin registered nurse, her husband and daughter, travelling in the same group of cars as the van, were also unclear about what had happened.
They did not realise the van had gone off the road until they saw it in the ditch.
They did not consider the vehicles were travelling too fast for the stretch of road.
The husband, who preferred not to be named, said it appeared one person had been thrown out of the vehicle as a result of the impact.
Sergeant Aaron Nicholson told media at the scene police were still trying to piece together what had happened.
He had not yet spoken to the driver or to witnesses.
Sgt Nicholson said he had not personally attended a crash at the location before.
A serious crash investigation is under way.
The bend has a double yellow line.
The 2m-deep ditch the van crashed into carries water from one side of the highway to the other and has no safety barrier.
The road, busy with traffic travelling to and from the Warbirds Over Wanaka International Airshow, was closed for almost two hours.
An alternative route was available.
