The wife of missing Dunedin hunter Murray Edge is losing hope, saying 'it's a bloody good way for him to go.'

A Canadian tramper who fell and dislocated his shoulder, forcing him to crawl for 10 hours to reach shelter, has been rescued eight days after his ordeal began.

Police are looking for a tramper who has failed to return to collect gear left in a hut.

An underwater search of a Canterbury lake will continue today for a kayaker who has been missing for four days.

Rosco the dog sparked a dramatic emergency operation when he decided to swim from Maungatapu to Matapihi.

It has been a "bad and very sad year already" for aviation in the south, the Civil Aviation Authority says.

Tributes are flowing in today for two of New Zealand's most experienced Cessna pilots who died in a horror crash that also claimed the lives of their two children.

Four bodies - believed to be from the same family - were last night recovered from the wreckage of a light aircraft near Wanaka.

Police have recovered four bodies from a light plane that crashed near Wanaka.

The family of a man whose body was found in the Waikato River last week claim he was the victim of "medical and bureaucratic malpractice".

A climber rescued after he got stuck on Mt Taranaki overnight was left at the summit by his mates.

A young English tourist is being praised for trying to save a Malaysian man who is believed drowned after jumping off the Tolaga Bay wharf on the East Coast.

A man who went fly-fishing and disappeared was rescued after activating a personal locator beacon.

The body of a kayaker has been found on a beach near the mouth of the Waiau River, Tuatapere.

A desperate plea by 15 bystanders for passing jetboats to rescue a 30-year-old struggling in the chilly waters of the Hokitika Gorge were ignored by the boaties.

Twenty people have rescued an American tourist from a West Coast cave after the woman suffered a suspected broken leg yesterday.

A search and rescue operation is underway near Queenstown after a German tourist failed to return a locator beacon by his "panic date".

As a stricken surfer clung to a cave roof while being buffeted by huge waves, Tai Kahn leaped from a helicopter into the churning seas to save the teen's life.

Divers have retrieved a black box from the crashed AirAsia flight from the bottom of the Java Sea, officials say.