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.

Police searchers have been scouring a small area off the Coromandel coastline for an oil slick in their hunt for a small biplane that disappeared after take off yesterday morning.

A search for a missing small plane which disappeared from radar has been scaled down for the night.

Four things you should know about the ongoing search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

A teenager who became trapped on a steep bluff in the Waitakere Ranges in darkness used the screen light from his cellphone to guide rescuers.

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.

The hunt for four men missing in four separate incidents across New Zealand continues today.

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.

An experienced caver trapped in an underground cavern overnight on Saturday says the experience was far from an ordeal.

A search has resumed this morning for a German tourist missing in the Travers Saddle area of Nelson Lakes National Park.

As Brooklyn Beazley's pregnant mother started slipping into a diabetic coma, the 7-year-old girl struggled to open a glucose syrup bottle that she knew was needed.

A father and daughter who had been missing at Arthur's Pass since Sunday have been found safe and well today.

The search for a German tourist missing in Nelson Lakes National Park for six days is today being hampered by snow and freezing conditions.

Searchers have found no sign of a 19-year-old tourist, whose tramping pack was found abandoned in Nelson Lakes National Park.

The policeman who shot a shark during an attempt to recover the body of Adam Strange after an attack at Muriwai a year ago today will be formally recognised for his efforts.

Editorial: In terms of fundraising, few organisations are in such a favoured position as the Westpac rescue helicopter service.

An elderly tramper was rescued by helicopter after he fell in the Tararua Ranges near Wellington yesterday.

A man suffered suspected neck and head injuries after a diving accident near Napier yesterday.

A 71-year-old woman who suffered a leg injury while tramping near Nelson took 10 hours to reach a hut before help could be raised.

Rescuers used a crow bar to prize a boulder off a tramper yesterday morning, one of two unusual call outs for the NZCC Rescue Helicopter.