The official holiday road toll has ended with 12 deaths over the Christmas and New Year period.
The official road toll began on 22 December at 4pm, and ran until 6am this morning.
This period was down from last year's road toll which saw 19 deaths in 15 fatal crashes, but was unchanged from 2015/16 which also saw 12 deaths.
But the police said any death was one too many.
"While many people are back at work today after a summer holiday break, there are families who have begun 2018 grieving for a loved one.
"Any loss of life is too many, and police are committed to working alongside our road safety partners in reducing death and injury on our roads," a police spokesperson said.
The police were urging people to drive to the conditions, wear their seatbelts, and not to drive when tired, after drinking or taking drugs, or while on their phone.
"There are still people on holiday in various parts of New Zealand, who will be returning home over the coming days. Please make sure you get there safely."
A third of the crashes this holiday period happened in the Auckland and Northland regions, while three of them occurred in Canterbury.
NZTA Road Safety Director Harry Wilson agreed with police that 12 deaths was still too high.
"We've got to think behind each of those stories is a tragedy for the families. People will remember this Christmas and this New Years for years for all the wrong reasons.
And it's not just the families themselves ... you also have to think of all the other people that are involved, the people who have to go to the site of the accident, the traffic directors, the emergency services that have to respond to the trauma, surgeons, every one of those stories affect a large amount of people."
He said while it was too soon to know for certain what caused this holiday period's crashes, he suspects it similar to any other time during the year.
"It seems that the pattern is very much as the same as what happens during the year, so there's nothing extraordinary except that we do have a higher volume of people traveling.
"It's the same kind of thing that occurs during the year, alcohol, speed, distraction, so we do urge people to concentrate on their driving."
Here are the accidents which occurred over the period:
23 December
Taxi Driver Abdul Raheem Fahad Syed, 29, was killed in Central Auckland in the early hours of December 23 in a collision with a man accused of drunk driving and running a red light.
The scene of the crash on Symonds Street. Photo: www.snpa.co.nz
Later that day 64-year-old Fijian National Lalita Devi was killed in a single-car crash in Northland.
24 December
Early on Christmas Eve the driver of a car died after hitting a tree in Hanmer Springs.
Later that morning one person was killed after a van rolled down a bank in Central Hawke's Bay.
A fifth person died in hospital after a three-car collision on State Highway Five near Rotorua.
26 December
On Boxing Day 80-year-old Horton James Hill of Christchurch and 31-year-old Matthew James Gilchrist of Oamaru were killed in a crash on Waimate Highway in Canterbury.
30 December
One person died and another injured after a truck rolled near Waiharara in Northland.
31 December
A person died after a car and a ute collided at Appleby near Nelson. A St John spokesperson said five others were injured, two with moderate injuries, and three with minor injuries.
A man who was critically injured in a single-car crash in Whangarei later died in hospital.
1 January
One man was killed after two-car crash on Tauranga bridge in early hours of the New year.
2 January
One person died after a motorbike and a ute collided in Masterton last night.