The Rotorua helicopter flew twice, dropping Matchitt, the baby and a 13-year-old girl from Waihau Bay to Whakatane Hospital and then returned to uplift a 5-year-old girl to Whakatane Hospital.
The YouthTown Rescue Helicopter from Taupo carried Callaghan, a 5-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl to Rotorua Hospital.
BayTrust Rescue Helicopter pilot Barry Vincent said it was a "massive" rescue in a remote area with so many injured.
"The logistics of so many people injured in such a remote location was not easy. We don't get this sort of accident very often but, when we do, the outcomes could have been very different if they didn't have the helicopter resource," he said.
Copenhagen St resident Alice Newth said the families in the two cars were related.
"I was one of the first on the scene. An uncle to both families was there. He was pulling everybody out of the truck. Hurae wasn't in the ute, he was on the road," she said.
She said Hurae had been transferred to Starship because he had a bad head injury.
"Where it happened, there is a rise in the road. Dean had just come over the rise and Rosco was coming from the other side in a 4WD truck with a trailer-load of firewood. The trailer saved them from flipping. The vehicles were a mess and there was wood all over the road," she said.
August's partner was also at the scene before going to her son at the hospital.
Newth said August had worked as a resource worker at the Te Kaha Recycling Centre.
Callaghan's mother Arihia said her husband Rangi was in shock after seeing the crash scene.
"He was knocked to pieces. He only came home at 3.30am - devastated. He was the one that saw the blood and the children crying," she said.
"We keep marvelling that those little kids' bones were not broken and we're so thankful for that," she said.
The family had been on their way to practice kapa haka on a marae with a trailer load of firewood and a whole pig.
Matchitt's father Mana said the family were still trying to piece together what happened.
"It was a head-on crash so they were very lucky," he said. August's former partner Tracy Tauteka said he had been a good father to their four children.
"We are waiting to go down for his funeral but they are going to hold it off because his son is still in hospital," she said.
A 20-year-old man was killed yesterday after the quad bike he was on hit driftwood and flipped over.
The accident happened just after a group of people finished fishing at Scotts Ferry, in the lower North Island.
Local resident Colin Jeffrey was among a group of Scotts Ferry locals who rushed out to the beach in 4WDs after hearing of the tragedy.
"If something happens like this, we've got to help the police and the fire brigade out," Jeffrey said. "Their first line of response doesn't have 4WDs."
It is understood the group out fishing were Palmerston North residents.
