A person is dead and another injured after a car hit a tree near Mercer, south of Auckland.
Emergency services were called to the crash near the intersection of Douglas and Mercer Ferry roads at 3.12pm.
Police said the two occupants of the four 4WD vehicle were trapped and had to be freed by firefighters.
The accident appeared to have happened in a forest.
A Fire Service spokesman confirmed that one person had died at the scene and that the second occupant had been transported to hospital in a rescue helicopter.
The status of the second person could not be immediately confirmed.
The incident occurred about 300m off the road, he said.
Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust communications' manager Lincoln Davies said in a statement it was believed a man aged in his 90s was driving when the vehicle hit a tree while going down a hill.
"The male patient in his 90s was trapped for some time in the vehicle and suffered multiple injuries. He was extricated from the wreckage and transported by vehicle to Westpac 2 [rescue helicopter].
"He was then flown to Auckland City Hospital in a serious condition."