Police have named the woman hit by a car between Bluff and Invercargill early on Monday.
She is Tamara Maree Schmidt (37), of Brisbane, Australia.
The woman's family in Australia have been advised, and police continue to assist them and her travelling companion, who remains in Invercargill.
Police are investigating how she came to be lying on the road when she was hit by a car driven by a Bluff motorist.
Detective Sergeant Mark McCloy said the Bluff driver alerted police after hitting the woman on State Highway 1 between Bluff and Invercargill about 1am on Monday.
But police have not ruled out that the victim was already dead.
The cause of death was being investigated, Det Sgt McCloy said.
''She was hit, whilst lying on the road, by a Bluff resident,'' he said.
Police had spoken to that resident and several other people.
Four vehicles were also under forensic examination.
Police described the incident as an ''unexplained death'' and called on anyone who saw the woman, who was wearing a blue jacket and pink shoes at the time of her death, to contact police.
A postmortem was carried out yesterday and police were informing her next of kin.
The woman's name would not be released until her identity was confirmed, Det Sgt McCloy said.
Police were being assisted by ESR, and other locations of interest were being investigated.
Following the incident, State Highway 1 was closed until early Monday afternoon.
Police were investigating the woman's movements in the hours and days before her death.
Victim Support was assisting the Bluff resident who reported the woman's death.
Police are still interested to hear of any sightings of a Britz campervan and of any persons walking on Bluff Highway between the hours of 9pm on Sunday, the 25th of October and 12:50am, on Monday morning, the 26th of October 2015.
