'Life will never be the same': Mother mourns death of 15-year-old cyclist Nathan Kraatskow

Monday, 21 May 2018

The mother of a teen cyclist killed on Auckland's North Shore says life will never be the same for their family again.

Nathan Kraatskow, a 15-year-old student at Vanguard Military Academy, was cycling home from a friend's place in Hobsonville on Friday night when he was hit by a car at the Oteha Valley Rd offramp on Auckland's North Shore. 

A 19-year-old woman came forward to police on Saturday and was charged with failing to stop and dangerous driving causing death.

She will appear at the North Shore District Court on Thursday.

**READ MORE:

* Nathan Kraatskow, 15, named as cyclist who died in Auckland crash 

* Driver of fatal Auckland hit-and-run speaking with police

* Auckland residents' worst fears realised, as woman killed at blackspot**

Nathan's mother, Charlene Kraatskow, says she, her husband, Nathan's brother and his two sisters have been living minute-by-minute after they were woken by police with the news at 1.30am Saturday.

'It's left a big big hole, life will never be the same.'

Friends have setup a Givealittle page for Nathan's family and Charlene said she has been fielding calls and messages from people who knew Nathan at many different points in his life.

Born in Durban, South Africa, he migrated to New Zealand with his family when he was two years old. 

Nathan was the eldest child and protected his younger siblings as fiercely as they looked up to him. 

On a family camping trip to Ohope, a boy came up to Nathan's sister and shoved her onto a trampoline. 

Nathan confronted the boy and insisted that he apologise, which he did, Charlene said.

Charlene said she worried for Nathan's sisters, who had been deeply affected by his death.

Family friend Traci Sietu observed one Nathan's sisters wearing his jersey the night after the crash.

'The fact that they want to be close to him, that says a lot,' Sietu said.

Some of Sietu's most vivid memories of Nathan are from a Sevens rugby tour of England and France that she and others organised when he was 12 years old.  

He befriended a five-year-old girl who was sitting alone at a school they visited.

Nathan invited her to sit with their team instead of eating alone.

And when a boy on the tour started getting homesick, Nathan was the one who wrapped his arm around him, Sietu said. 

Nathan could also be single-minded and ambitious.

When he was a five-year-old student at Oteha Valley Primary, he came home and told his mother he wanted to become an air force pilot. 

Charlene says she brushed it off thinking it was another case of a five-year-old wanting to be an air force pilot today, firefighter tomorrow, and a policeman the day after that.

Seven years later, when he was a 12-year-old student at Northcross Intermediate, he reminded his mother about his dream and told her he would start air cadets next year on his 13th birthday. 

He would prove similarly single-minded in high school when he requested a move from Rangitoto College to Vanguard Military Academy to better his chances of becoming an air force pilot.

'I thought he would change his mind, but he never did.'

'He carried his dream right through.'