UPDATED 6.21pm: The section of State Higway 2 east of Tauranga where a man died in a head-on collision is now re-open.
The road was closed to traffic around Gill Lane after the crash at 2.15pm.
3.39pm: A man driving a hired car south towards Tauranga has died in a crash near Te Puna, Western Bay highway patrol Sergeant Nigel Ramsden says.
Two cars had a head-on crash about 2.15pm on SH2 near Gill Lane.
An couple in their 70s travelling north and involved in the crash had to be cut from their car and have both been taken to Tauranga Hospital, one with critical injuries.