After just two days, the holiday road toll stands at three.
Two of the fatal crashes have been in the Waikato, while the other was further north near Pukekohe.
The official Christmas-New Year holiday road toll period runs from 4 o'clock on Christmas Eve until six on the morning of January the 5th.
Last holiday period, 18 people were killed in the entire road toll period in New Zealand.
At this time last Christmas holidays the toll stood at one.
Speed, alcohol and driver inattention contributed to the two road deaths in the Waikato these holidays.
Twenty-three-year-old David James Hill died when a car he was a passenger in crashed into a bank on Tainui Road near Morrinsville.
The 23-year-old driver was critically injured and is in Waikato Hospital. Neither man was wearing a seatbelt.
On the evening of the 25th, an elderly man, on his way to deliver presents to his family, died when it appears he failed to give way while turning on the highway just south of Gordonton.
He was 84-year-old James Philip Vesey of Manukau. He died in hospital.
Senior Sergeant Bruce Lyon says both deaths were avoidable.
Overall however, New Zealand is heading for good year and police are looking forward to having the lowest annual toll ever.
So far in 2008, 351 people have been killed on New Zealand roads, the lowest ever toll was in 1960 when there were 374 deaths.
2006 was the first time in recent years the road toll dropped beneath 400, with 391 deaths.
