The road to Piha on Aucklands west coast was closed for several hours on Tuesday after a fatal crash left a woman trapped in a car for 30 minutes, while fire crews cut her free.
A women in her 30s died at the scene, while the surviving 59-year-old woman has serious head, back and chest injuries.
"At this stage it would appear one of the cars has crossed the centre line," says Inspector Kevin Taylor.
Traffic was backed up for several kilometres with hundreds of holiday makers forced to wait hours for the road to re-open.
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Police are asking those first at the crash scene to contact them.
Traffic on the Piha road is now back to normal.
