The parents of three American students killed in yesterday's horror van smash are making their way to New Zealand.
Boston University students Daniela Rosanna Lekhno, 20, Roch Jauberty, 21, and Austin Brashears, 21, died after being thrown thrown from a van which left State Highway 46 yesterday, near Rangipo, 10km south of Turangi, and rolled three times.
It is the latest tragedy for a university which has been struck down by more than its fair share of grief this year - with one student being murdered, two male hockey players charged with sexual assault, and a student who was seriously injured jumping from a burning building.
At midday today (8pm USA EDT), students held a candlelight vigil and remembrance on the American university campus to pay tribute to their friends.
The public event included emotional remembrances from close friends of Jauberty and Brashears.
The Rev. Robert Hill, dean of Marsh Chapel, where chaplains stand ready to counsel students, led the Saturday evening vigil to the victims "to remember with thanksgiving the lives of these young adults and begin the hard work of grappling with these sad circumstances.''
"As soon as you're born, you're [in line] to die,'' he said, "but these students were far too young to die.''
Since the campus is deserted due to the finale of this semester's classes and finals, students have turned online to post their tributes and feelings.
The Boston University (BU) website reports one student, Joshua Wright, who had taken a class with victim Miss Lekhno, as saying she was "just honestly the brightest person.''
He wrote: "Although she was quiet, every single time she smiled, every time she laughed, you knew it was just so genuine. It's really hard to lose such bright people, such positive people.''
With most students gone for the summer, "A lot of [student communication] is via communication on Facebook, and a lot of the communication is sincere condolences,'' Wright added.
"Every school had had a piece of them gone missing. It's been the culmination of so many different things that have affected BU, it's really hard to deal with.''
News of the New Zealand triple fatality, feels like, "Not another thing. Not again,'' said Caroline Booth.
Kaylee Bates spent autumn in BU's Sydney, Australia program, in which one of the injured students, is enrolled. "I can kind of picture myself being there, because my friends were doing the same thing, road-tripping around all of New Zealand. I think you always hope that it won't happen; it sounds like it was just a freak car accident that could happen here.''
Deans of the victims' schools took on the sad tasks of email alerts to students, readying memorials, and guiding grieving members of the BU community to counselling services.
"Any harm that comes to any Boston University student touches us all," CAS Dean Virginia Sapiro told the BU website.
"Because all BU undergraduates take a lot of their courses in CAS, they are all known to our students and faculty, and their loss and hurt is felt deeply across the college.''
The tragedy occurred when the students' van was travelling in convoy with another people mover around 7.30am yesterday, heading to Tongariro Crossing where they intended to tramp.
But as they approached the turn-off to the walk entrance the driver of the second vehicle drifted into gravel on the side of the road and lost control.
Police say that the driver "overcorrected" by pulling the steering wheel too hard, and the vehicle, with eight people on board, flipped more than three times, flinging two passengers to their deaths.
One more died inside the van while the possessions of their holiday - cameras, backpacks and iPhones - were strewn along the road.
Police confirmed that the driver survived but would not release any details about their condition.
Another student, a 21-year-old woman, who is from Boston University but on Sydney's student exchange programme, was air-lifted from the crash site to hospital.
Today (Sunday) she remains in a critical condition in Waikato Hospital's intensive care unit after overnight surgery, according to the Waikato District Health Board.
Her family has asked that she is not named.
Two other women, Alys McAlpine and Kathy Moldawer, aged 20 and 21, remain in Rotorua Hospital in a stable condition, while two Stephen Houseman, 20, and Emily Melton, also 20, have been treated at the Taupo Hospital emergency department and were later discharged.
All of the students except the woman in a critical condition were enrolled in a Boston University study abroad program in Auckland, says Bernd Widdig, executive director of BU's study abroad programs,
The website named the students travelling in the second van - none of whom were injured - as Dustin Holstein, Giselle Moreno, Keely McCaffery, Kyle Snow, Hayley Ross and Evan White.
In a letter sent to all students and parents of students in the Auckland and Sydney programs, Jean Morrison, University Provost and Chief Academic Officer wrote that the university was offering support to all students in the two programs, and that partnering organisations in those cities were also providing support.
Today, police will interview the traumatised students to try and establish how the crash occurred.
