Survivor's message of love to best friend Daisy

A girl must learn to walk again, without her best mate. Esther Harward and Catherine Woulfe report.

Thirteen-year-old Claudia Billinge, who saw her best friend fatally injured on New Year's Eve, has written her a farewell message from her hospital bed.

Claudia survived the accident that killed Daisy Fernandez, also 13; the pair had been giggling in the sand on a dark Northland beach when a boy on a motocross bike, with no lights, ploughed into them.

Daisy died early the next day.

Claudia's message to her friend, which was read at Daisy's funeral in Tauranga on Friday, says: "I wouldn't be who I am today without you, your spirit will always be alive, your smile will always be in my head, you plus me equals California girls, candy cane butterflies, all night long. Rest in peace Daisy, love you forever."

Claudia remembers catching black beetles with Daisy, naming them and taking them on walks. Having cooking competitions, putting the results in the blender and drinking the sludge; dancing in the sand with their iPods playing the Beach Boys loud.

The girls' friends from their youth group and school are posting messages of love and support on Claudia's Bebo page, and have set up two RIP pages for Daisy.

Police have interviewed the 15-year-old bike rider and are considering whether to lay charges.

Claudia told the Sunday Star-Times from her hospital bed that she and Daisy had been friends since Daisy showed her around Bay of Plenty's Omokoroa primary school when they were five.

"She was a bubbly and a happy person. She would always make someone smile even if they didn't know her."

Claudia, who has a broken leg and shattered pelvis, expects to have surgery today or tomorrow before being transferred to Tauranga Hospital later this week. She will get crutches in six weeks and will have to learn to walk again.

Claudia and Daisy lived 2km apart and used to stay at each other's homes.

Claudia's mother Melody Downie said Daisy was a joy to have around: "We always loved Daisy coming because she loved fun."

On Friday it would have been her 14th birthday Daisy lay in a coffin painted lime green with white daisies. Her funeral lasted almost two hours and was attended by about 600 people. A second service was held at the same time, at the beach where she died.

An aunt trying to explain Daisy's zaniness told the congregation that the family is "completely mad", full of love and fun.

Her parents Sandi and Craig brought Daisy up with countless nicknames and oddball stories Craig had told his daughter he found her in a matchbox, behind a tin of baked beans on a shop shelf, and decided to bring her home. They found her journal the day before the funeral. In it she had written a list of the things she had and had not done.

She had kissed a boy, had an imaginary friend, flashed someone and blamed it on someone else, eaten herself silly, forgotten what day it was, and stopped believing in Santa.

Downie said she was aware that speeding on Northland beaches was a long-term problem.

"The locals have been trying for so long to sort it out. It takes a tragedy for it to sink in."

She and Claudia said vehicles should be banned at night and speed limits should be consistent because parts of the beach are 30km/h and other parts are 100km/h. Claudia didn't want to talk about the accident. "I don't want to remember this," she said of the accident at Ripiro Beach near Dargaville.

The Transport Safety Minister, Harry Duynhoven, plans to meet conservation, police and local government ministers to discuss whether to make one authority responsible for controlling vehicle access to beaches. However, he questioned whether any change was necessary, despite Daisy's death.

"I would have thought that it's not too difficult for a council to put up a sign at the end of beach access roads, if they have bylaws ... I don't think it's a huge problem in most of the country. I think there are isolated spots where common sense isn't applying, and unfortunately you can't legislate for common sense." He said if people were concerned about dangerous driving on beaches they could call the police.

Council bosses say the current system of splitting control over vehicle access between four authorities is a "nonsense".

- © Fairfax NZ News