The family of two children who were severely burned in a car fire in Gisborne last week are maintaining a bedside vigil as the pair continue to fight for their lives in hospital.

UPDATED Police are still searching for a car involved in a hit and run that has left a teenage boy in an Auckland hospital overnight.

A dad was killed while riding in the sidecar of a speedway motorbike driven by his son during a practice run yesterday.

The plane that crashed off the coast of Kawhia last Saturday had undergone extensive repairs for damage when it ran off the end of an airstrip a year ago.

A teenage boy has been hospitalised with serious injuries after a hit and run in Auckland this evening.

A body has been recovered from the crashed plane of 2degrees boss Eric Hertz and one of the Navy divers has been injured while working on the recovery operation.

A hero first aider has described the moments he thought a three-year-girl had died after she was pulled from a horrific car fire in Gisborne.

Two pre-schoolers who were trapped in a burning car in Gisborne remain hospitalised in a serious condition.

Family and friends of the mother whose toddlers were badly burnt in a car fire after being left alone have defended her actions.

Just hours before being fatally struck by a car on a dark highway, 18-year-old Jovaan Graham was urged by her cousin to stay with her in Rotorua.

Boaties have been asked to stay 500m from the site where the plane belonging to 2degrees chief executive Eric Hertz and his wife crashed while divers search for bodies.

Police will decide whether the wreck of the plane belonging to the 2degrees' chief executive Eric Hertz will be recovered from the seabed off the Waikato coast, the Navy says.

A pregnant woman was among those hit when an elderly woman accidentally drove her car into a bank in central Tauranga this morning, witnesses say.

The parents of a forestry worker who was crushed by a falling pine tree fought back tears yesterday as they joined a campaign to improve safety standards in the industry.

It is likely to be Friday at the earliest before exploration can continue at the scene of a fatal plane crash off the Waikato coast.

Maori and Pacific Island children are more likely to be injured in a crash on Auckland roads than anyone else, research reveals.

Plane wreckage, thought to contain the bodies of 2degrees' chief executive Eric Hertz and his wife Kathy, has been found on the sea floor off the Waikato coast.

A Tauranga teen is in a critical condition after sustaining serious head injuries when he fell from his skateboard while street skating in Welcome Bay.

Hannah Eaton was known as the wife of rugby star Chris Eaton, but she had a life of her own as a mum, a part-time model and in the last month, a midwifery graduate.

The official Easter holiday period ended at 6am today with three deaths too many, according to the country's top traffic officer who said the figure "shouldn't be tolerated".

The underwater search for plane wreckage believed to contain the bodies of 2degrees boss Eric Hertz and his wife has turned high-tech with the use of a high-tech torpedo.

The head of a Navy team using sonar to search for aircraft wreckage says it's possible the bodies of 2degrees' boss Eric Hertz and his wife Kathy may never be found.