Police investigations are continuing this morning, after a busy 24 hours for emergency services in the upper North Island

One person has died and another has been rescued -- after their SUV plunged into Tauranga Harbour during a three-car crash about 5pm.

Two people are in hospital, after a bloody altercation in the Auckland suburb of Epsom about 7pm.

A man has been arrested and a firearm has been seized, after armed police were called to an incident in the suburb of Otara about 7.15pm.

And investigations are continuing, after yesterday's arrest of 14 people in Auckland over an international drug smuggling ring.

Meanwhile, an 89-year-old former staff member of Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital is due in court next week on charges of ill-treatment of a child, but two others have been found medically unfit to stand trial.

And the sole survivor of a crash that killed five Timaru teenagers is due back in court in February, after being charged with five counts of manslaughter.