An Italian exchange student who was lost in the Wainuiomata bush for almost 24 hours has been found.

A frightened woman who watched her climbing companion slip on ice and fall 300m was helped to safety in a dramatic mountain rescue on Whakapapa skifield.

A mountain climber has suffered serious head injuries after falling 300m down Mt Ruapehu today.

A woman who was swept to her death in a flood-swollen Bay of Islands river was a 28-year-old mother from Wellington.

Rescuers trying to save people at a house party deluged by floodwaters were abused by those they were trying to help.

To three rescued yachties he's an absolute hero. But Navy Lieutenant Simon Wasley feels 'fairly uncomfortable' about the label, despite his dive into treacherous seas.

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.

A kayaker paddling from Australia to New Zealand is making headway again after running dangerously low on supplies and hunkering down in bad weather.

A man who fell 40 metres down a cliff while chasing a wild goat says he's lucky to be alive.

An urgent aid mission will get underway today to drop vital supplies to a kayaker attempting a solo trip across the Tasman Sea.

Five men had a lucky escape when the dinghy they were in capsized on the Waikato river.

The body of a missing Queenstown woman has been found by searchers in Lake Wakatipu.

A Blenheim man has been rescued in California, thanks to his New Zealand-registered personal locator beacon.

A tramper has been swept away while trying to cross a stream on the Milford Track.

The parents of the German teenagers presumed drowned in Foveaux Strait are returning home and say they know they are leaving their daughters behind.

Deep in a glacier crevasse with a broken arm and ankle, Sabine Hellenbrandt expected to take her last breath trapped in the ice. Then she heard members of the South Westland Alpine Cliff Rescue call to her.

A kayaker trying to traverse "car-sized boulders" on a trip in the eastern Bay of Plenty sparked a helicopter call-out after slipping and falling into a river.

A French tourist swept away after slipping into a raging Woolshed Creek late on Wednesday was washed over a terrifying two waterfalls before clambering out.