British police say a DNA test has confirmed a New Zealand girl who looks strikingly like Madeleine McCann is not the missing youngster.

Friends of a man believed to have been murdered initially thought he had been kidnapped and say they had all been prepared to contribute to whatever ransom demand was made.

Police believe a man whose body was found in Gisborne may have gone to the Rhythm and Vines music festival before he went missing almost a month ago.

A Chinese man whose body was found in Auckland Harbour has been identified by a relative this morning.

Relatives of a missing Martinborough man are yet to return home from a makeshift camp at the south Wairarapa bay where he went missing more than a week ago.

Police hope the large colourful emblem on the front of an Adidas T-shirt will help identify a man whose body was found floating in Auckland harbour.

A search is underway for a man missing after he went to set a crayfish pot near Wellington yesterday.

Police have confirmed a body found near Tikitapu (Blue Lake) is that of missing Rotorua man Ross McKendrick.

Queenstown police are "absolutely satisfied" a young girl seen in the town on New Year's Eve is not missing British girl Madeleine McCann.

A twenty-year-old who was missing for 24 hours on a mountain battered by severe storms has been found "walking, talking and cold", police say.

The search has been called off for missing Palmerston North tramper Alastair Levy, who disappeared more than a week ago in the Kahurangi Ranges near Nelson.

A jogger lost for two days in the Tararua Range devoured a jar of peanut butter and some instant soup after stumbling upon a hut before being rescued today.

Poor weather is continuing to hamper search and rescue efforts for missing tramper Alistair Levy in the Kahurangi National Park.

Searchers are this morning waiting for a break in the wind to send up three helicopters, including an Iroquois helicopter, to scour the Tararua Ranges for a missing runner.

Police are today searching a "massive" area of the Tararua ranges after a man failed to return from a run yesterday.