Five children believed to be among 20+ injured on NZ's roads today after a horror start to the year. One person was killed early this morning.

At least 100 firefighters are dealing with fires and car crashes throughout the area tonight.

A garage in the Auckland suburb of Piha has gone up in flames tonight.

Emergency services are at the scene on the Northern Motorway and the Waitemata Serious Crash Unit has arrived.

Firefighters undertook a "delicate operation" at Auckland's Middlemore Hospital this morning.

Two teenage girls had to be rescued from the Manukau Harbour after drifting 1.5km off-shore on an inflatable swan.

An investigation has been launched after reports of a mysterious explosion that has hospitalised a Stoke man.

Three drown, one person missing, and another in serious condition.

One person has been critically injured in a road accident in Ranui.

An 11-year-old boy has died following a fall in a lift in a house that was being renovated north of Auckland.

Fire fighters were called to a single storey two-unit block of flats on Arthur Grove in Waikanae about 7.30pm.

Two car crashes this evening in the North Island have left three people injured, two of them seriously.

David Hills was killed on Saturday travelling back to Palmerston North with friends in a crash with a truck that left their car barely recognisable.

Smoke billowing over city as bush fire rages on city's North Shore.

The man who received life threatening injuries after being struck by a van in South Auckland remains in a critical condition this morning.

Driver who allegedly shunted into an Auckland mother's car remembers very little.

Although the driver appeared uninjured, some of the vehicle's contents had landed in the stream.

A pedestrian has life threatening injuries after he was struck by a van in South Auckland early today.

Mother of three suffered extensive injuries in a crash in northwest Auckland on Friday night.

A three-way car crash is causing commuter chaos in Wellington tonight as drivers face a long trip home.

Cardiac arrest patients cared for by New Zealand's largest ambulance provider have a markedly lower chance of surviving than those under the service covering Wellington and the Wairarapa.

Tributes have poured in for a worker who was killed in a bitumen explosion in rural Waikato yesterday.

A man is dead after a fuel tanker explosion at an earth-moving company this afternoon.

A recovery team works at Fox Glacier after the helicopter crash, which killed pilot Mitch Gameren and six others. Footage/Supplied

Attempts to recover the remaining three bodies were cut short today after stormy weather closed in.

Four stranded members of the recovery team working at the Fox Glacier helicopter crash site were in for a long night after stormy weather closed in.

The police Eagle helicopter was sent to Little Shoal Bay after police received a call from ambulance around 5.30pm that the girls were in trouble.

Five of the 24 houses in the Waikakaho Valley have been evacuated by Police.

Initially it was thought a child was unaccounted for, but it was later confirmed all the kids from the house were safe.

A police spokesman said the accident had happened on Great South Road outside the Manukau Holiday park near Costar Place shortly after 12:30.