Attempts will be made this weekend to seal cracks around the ventilation shaft at the Pike River Coal mine and stop gases leaking out - a critical step in the process towards stabilising the mine.

Alcohol and speed appear to have been factors in a crash which left two people critically injured on Auckland's North Shore today, police say.

The "vast majority" of the Pike River Royal Commission of Inquiry hearings into the tragedy which claimed the lives of 29 men will be held in Greymouth, the commission says.

After 54 hours in the open, missing 90-year-old June Wickman was found alive by her grandsons yesterday, amazing rescuers.

A 10-year-old Hamilton girl has died after cycling down a flight of stairs. The girl had been cycling to the dairy with her aunty and cousin when the accident happened.

The tragic death of a Nelson teenager this week serves as a warning of the risks of suffering from shallow water blackout when holding your breath underwater, a water safety expert says.

Police are on the lookout for a man who posed as a Pike River miner to steal from a family who befriended him on Christmas Eve.

He was playing a game that will be familiar to many from childhood. But when Sam Goodenough's turn came to try to hold his breath the longest underwater, the game turned to tragedy, when the16-year-old blacked out and failed to surface.

The woman who was discovered seriously injured in Christchurch early today says she believes she was intentionally mown down by a driver.

Families of the 29 men killed in the Pike River Coal mine tragedy have publicly thanked everyone involved in the rescue and recovery operation.

Roads and vehicles must be "more forgiving" to curb a road toll which averages more than one death a day, the AA says. Figures released by the Ministry of Transport today show 371 people died on the roads over the past year.

Temperatures inside the Pike River Coal mine continue to fluctuate, frustrating those charged with retrieving the bodies of 29 men killed in a series of explosions since November 19.

Police have named the 19-year-old who died when he was thrown out of a car as it plunged 25 metres down a cliff at the Pinewoods Motor Park in Red Beach, north of Auckland, early this morning.

The death of a 15-year-old driver who fled from police this morning was 'completely avoidable', say police. Timoti Mohi was driving a stolen car when he failed to stop for police and drove off at speeds of up to 180km/h.