Five off-duty lifeguards have been honoured for their rescue of an unconscious woman in rough seas at Piha on Auckland's west coast.

A man was flown to hospital after he was ejected from the vehicle he was driving in a "high speed roll-over" in the Waikato.

A rescue service is set to benefit from the divot-stomping and champagne sipping at the annual Land Rover New Zealand Polo Open next month.

Hundreds of bottles of beer were left broken and strewn across State Highway 25 south of Auckland after a truck and car collided, injuring three people, early today.

A young boy was airlifted to hospital after falling from a jungle gym at a Waikato school yesterday.

A teenage tramper was winched to safety in high winds at Raglan's Mt Karioi yesterday afternoon.

A woman in her 60s who fell and injured her ankle has been rescued from the Waitakeres using an 80 foot winch.

A female in her late teens was the sole occupant of a car which left the road and crashed down a bank in the Coromandel this morning.

An abandoned yacht is still transmitting its position at sea in the Bay of Plenty after a dramatic helicopter rescue in which its two crew were winched to safety.

A trapped tramper was winched to safety after spending the night on a rock ledge as wild seas surged around him.

A woman who watched in horror as a car careered over a cliff, just missing her two grandchildren below, says she would like to visit the crash victim in hospital.

A teenager was airlifted to hospital after his car plunged 15m down a bank in the Coromandel this morning.

The name of an Australian woman who died after suffering head injuries in a fall on to rocks has been released.

A man has been airlifted to hospital after hurting his back sliding down sand dunes at a West Auckland beach today.

Critically injured Auckland patients have a better chance of survival on their way to the hospital with rescue helicopters in the city now carrying blood for emergency transfusions.

A man's jaw was broken when he was struck in the face with a golf ball during Labour weekend.

Shane Andrews was riding to work across a bridge when a driver distracted by the swollen Waimakariri River crossed the centre line and knocked him into the river.

Greg Brownson gets up at 5.30am every day for a 7 o'clock start. His helicopters save four people a day on average and he loves his job.

In the aftermath of a violent head-on smash, with her youngest child screaming for "mummy", Debbie Bell looked at her legs and knew she was in trouble.

Auckland Mayor Len Brown has voted to slash funding to the Westpac rescue helicopter service, three days after assuring the service he would sort out a $900,000 funding gap.

The Auckland Council has approved a $14.3 million funding package for 10 regional amenities, which includes a cut for the Westpac helicopter rescue service.

A plan by Auckland Mayor Len Brown to fill a $900,000 gap in the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust's running costs has hit a legal obstacle for council funding.

Auckland's rescue helicopter service claims it has been starved of money - but it turns out to be much better off than its fellow charities.

Auckland Mayor Len Brown was right to act to end a costly court case involving the Auckland rescue helicopter trust and the regional amenities funding body.

Len Brown has called for a funding board at the centre of a row with the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust to be scrapped after its push to slash funding for the trust.

Members of a board which yesterday agreed to halve funding to the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust could find themselves in court.