The government's announced its future million-dollar memorial plans to honour those who died at the Pike River mine site.

It comes just days before the fifth anniversary of the mining disaster, in which 29 men lost their lives.

Minister Nick Smith's confirmed a 45-kilometre Great Walk will be built through the Paparoa National Park.

The park will also be extended by almost four-thousand hectares to include the Pike River area as a memorial.

It will include a side track to the Pike River Mine, where there'll be an information centre and a discreet memorial at the mine portal.

The memorial will cost 10-million-dollars and be opened at the end of 2018.