Police confirmed they died in the single vehicle crash as it travelled west on Tirohanga Rd, Kinleith, at 7.40am today.
Later in the morning, three people were killed in another horror crash near Ashburton.
And a ninth person has died after their car crashed into water near Auckland Airport early this morning. The vehicle left the road and crashed into water near the intersection of Tom Pearce Dr and Puhinui Rd about 1.15am.
The five killed in Kinleith were all members of one family, Senior Sergeant Fane Troy confirmed. A teenager was among the dead.
An 11-year-old boy survived, but has serious injuries.
Three women had died in the crash and two men, police said. They were a local family.
"Our hearts go out to the family, these are the ones this will hurt the most," Troy said.
Firefighters freed a sixth person with critical injuries from the wreckage. They were taken to Waikato Hospital by helicopter.
A woman who lives near the crash scene was on her way to take her children to school when she saw the vehicle had smashed into a tree.
After seeing the wreckage she turned around and drove back to check on the occupants.
She was still in shock as to what she'd seen but said there were six people in one car, a Ford Falcon.
Country Kidz early childhood centre is on the corner of Forest Rd and Tirohanga Rd.
Manager Sarndra Evans said most families had to follow the road diversion to get to the centre this morning.
"It just took a bit longer than usual. We have not been directly affected. The kids are fairly unaware of what's happened."
This morning's fatal crash site is just a 10-minute drive from where a man died in a two-truck crash on State Highway 1 on Friday morning.
Debris was strewn 100m along the road.
A woman who answered the phone at Tirohanga School said many of their pupils were late this morning.
"The bus couldn't get through. It could only get as far as Paerata Rd I think," she said. "But we have got most of our children at school now."
The woman said Okama Rd was about five or six minutes from the primary school, which had a roll of 37 children.
A number of parents had phoned the school to let them know there had been a crash and their children would be late, she said.
There had been a second "incident" at the same spot but a FENZ spokesman said he did not believe anyone had been injured in the second crash.
A car crashed into a tree near the intersection of Tirohanga and Okama Roads, south of Kinleith and near Kinleith Forest, police said. The incident was reported to police about 7.40am.
