With the death of a woman in a head-on crash near Queenstown on New Year's Day, the holiday road toll rose to six.
The latest fatal accident occurred at just after 5.30pm on Little Road near Arthur's Point, six kilometres from Queenstown.
The police say the woman, a passenger in a car, died at the scene.
Two other people with life-threatening injuries were flown to Queenstown and Invercargill hospitals.
On Thursday, a man died after he drove through a police checkpoint near Opotiki in the eastern Bay of Plenty and rolled his car into a ditch.
The police say the driver, who was alone in the car, accelerated through the checkpoint and lost control about 200 metres down the road. The car swerved and ended up in a ditch on the opposite side of the road.
Road deaths also in Waikato, West Coast, Marlborough
Earlier on Thursday one person died and three were taken to hospital after a head-on crash in the Bay of Plenty town of Matata. The police say a car crossed the centre line and drove into the path of oncoming traffic.
On Wednesday a motorcyclist died after hitting a power pole on State Highway 6 near Punakaiki on the West Coast.
A man in his 70s died in a three-car collision at Ward in Marlborough on Monday and a man in his 30s was killed in Waikato early on Christmas Day.
Two people have been seriously injured in car accidents in Canterbury: a seven-year-old boy who was in a car that went off a bridge in the Waimakariri Gorge shortly before 10pm on Thursday,
and a man in his early 20s who was hit by a car in Ferry Rd, central Christchurch, at just after 10.30pm.
The holiday road toll period runs from Christmas Eve to 5 January.
