family unit, with the mothers of both children - Marj Neilson and Jenny Harrison - representing different ends of typical family life - Marj being a mother of a large steady family whilst Jenny was a single mother of one. Both characters were utilized to represent the strong matriarch De Nave envisioned. Other people working on the show were also credited for creating several characters: Jason Daniel primarily created the role of teenager Kirsty Knight, Ken Catran created Hone Ropata and De Nave herself created Meredith Fleming. Humour was also a large part in deciding the cast, with several characters having comedic elements to their stories, whilst others such as Marj and later Nick, were primarily comic relief. Departures All actors were signed to an initial one-year contract and as soon as it ended, both Adrian Keeling (Tom Neilson) and Danielle Cormack (Alison Raynor) opted not to sign an extension. Both characters were written off shortly in 1993. Cormack later stated, "After a year I just wasn't interested in staying. I felt I learned all I could from that particular format". Later in the year, both Stephanie Wilkin (Meredith Fleming) and Lisa Crittenden (Carrie Burton) resigned, with the characters leaving in July and November respectively. In 1994, Nancy Brunning quit her role as Nurse Jaki Manu. When she had agreed to appear on the show, she had made a personal decision to only stay for two years. Not only that but Brunning was finding it a "challenge" as it was hard, "to sustain this character for two years, to remember everything she had done in the past and keep it consistent in the future." A month later, after Andrew Binns completed his agreed to two years working on the show, the popular character of Steve Mills (Andrew Binns) died in a high-profile car crash storyline that stunned the nation. The storyline was leaked to the press and newspapers featured speculation as to who had died. Just days later, Gina Rossi-Dodds (Josephine Davison) departed. Throughout his time on the soap, Martin Henderson (Stuart Neilson) had begun to tire of his character and his story lines and in late 1994 he left the show to pursue a film career. Due to the character's popularity and his departure being leaked to the press, much speculation was made around his exit. Stuart made his last appearance in February 1995. Temuera Morrison (Hone Ropata) had