Bad start on roads for holiday weekend
Two children were injured yesterday in a hit- and- run in South Auckland.
And another woman was hospitalised after a police pursuit in Manurewa last night.
A 13- year- old boy and 10- year- old girl were hit by a vehicle on Artillery Drive in Papakura just after 5.30pm.
A police spokeswoman said the driver fled the scene in what i s believed to be a grey or silver car.
The children received moderate injuries and were treated at the scene.
The woman hurt in the Manurewa crash was injured after a stolen vehicle sped away from police and hit another vehicle.
A female passenger in the fleeing vehicle suffered serious injuries and the male driver of the other vehicle had moderate to serious injuries.
The driver of the stolen vehicle fled from police on foot.
Earlier one person died and two others were seriously injured in a spate of crashes across the country as people battled holiday traffic delays.
The fatal crash happened on State Highway 2 near Wairoa, half an hour before the official Labour Weekend holiday toll started at 4pm. It ends at 6am on Tuesday.
Further south, two people were seriously hurt in a crash just outside of Geraldine.
There was heavy congestion heading north and south out of Auckland yesterday afternoon.
Traffic was also backed up in the Wellington region, where motorists faced delays of up to 30 minutes, northbound between Plimmerton and Paraparaumu.
The Transport Agency is reminding drivers to expect delays at peak times and to allow extra time for their journeys.
The police are pleading for motori sts to drive safely and to reduce speeds. The trigger point for a speeding fine over the long weekend i s more than 4km/ h above the limit — at the discretion of the police officer wielding the ticket book.
Meanwhile, on the weather front, today looks to be the pick of the weather for gardening and holiday making this Labour Day weekend.
But it’s not much of a pick, with cloud in many places and showers in others.
It’s all pretty t ypical spring weather, with cool winds blowing in from the Tasman Sea — until a northerly swings around on to the upper half of the North Island and dumps rain on Monday.
Wellington may be one of the few places for a decent dose of sun — but not until Monday’s public holiday, and the temperature is pegged for no more than a just- warm 16C.
“It’s very much a spring weekend,” said MetService meteorologist John Law.
A front over the South Island today is expected to deliver rain in the west and south, and showers in the east and north.
In Central Otago, temperatures dive from the unseasonably high middle- to- high 20s where they sat for several days, to a predicted 18C today and 17C tomorrow.
Northland and Auckland are in for a cloudy day today, with a few showers.
In the west of the North Island, from Wellington and through Waikato to the Coromandel and Bay of Plenty, isolated showers can be expected, turning to rain from evening.
In the North Island, the east stands out as the sunny place to be tomorrow, with a few showers elsewhere. The South Island i s in for varying amounts of the wet stuff.
On Monday the upper half of the North Island can expect a bout of northerly rain, but further south, fine weather is forecast.
In the South Island, rain and showers are predicted for the west, with i solated showers in eastern districts.
Meteorologist John Law