Three tourists have been injured in a a car crash in northern Southland.

An unconscious person had to be cut out of a car after a crash in east Auckland this morning, which also injured four others.

Young Muna Taunga had little to say. "My mum's a hero," said the small girl. And then the story came out.

The stoic spokesman for the families of the Pike River dead cannot stop grieving for the son he lost a year ago today.

A year after the Pike River mine explosion, the 29 miners who died will today be remembered in a service.