A person is dead after a crash near Hope in the Tasman district this morning.

Two cars collided on State Highway 6 near Clover Rd at about 5.40am, police said.

The road is expected to be closed for some time while the serious crash unit investigates.

The latest crash brings the weekend road toll to six.

Meanwhile, three people are in hospital with injuries after a crash in Northland overnight.

A St John helicopter rushed to the scene in Ruakaka shortly before midnight and a crew treated the injured parties.

One person was critically injured in the crash, and two others had serious injuries.

One patient was airlifted to Auckland hospital and two others were flown to Whangarei Hospital.

A police spokeswoman said just one vehicle was involved in the crash, which happened on Peter Snell Rd.

The vehicle had driven off the road.

Five fatal crashes earlier in weekend

The first person killed was a man who died in a single-vehicle crash on Mountain View Rd in Hikurangi, Northland, just before midnight on Friday.

Two people received minor injuries.

Seven hours later two people died when a truck and a van collided in the central North Island at 6.40am on Saturday.

The crash happened at the intersection of State Highway 47 and SH48, the same place a bus crashed down a bank 14 months ago, injuring 14 tourists and the driver.

Two people died and a third was flown to Auckland Hospital in a serious condition after two cars crashed on State Highway 10 about 2.20pm, north of Kaeo, in the Far North yesterday.

When emergency services arrived at the crash, they found four people trapped — three in one vehicle, one in another.

The crashes bring this year's road toll to 75 — seven more than at the same time last year.