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.

After falling down a 10m deep sinkhole and landing on the remains of dead animals, Jill Clendon's first thoughts focused on whether she had broken any bones.

Police have released the name of the Gisborne man who is missing, believed drowned, after Monday night's kayaking tragedy at Pouawa.

The search for a man who reportedly fell off rocks in the Bay of Plenty into the sea about 5pm yesterday is being scaled back.

A 25-year-old French tourist spent a cold and wet night "hunkered down" in the bush near the Routeburn Track on Tuesday night.

An Australian tourist sparked a full-scale search operation in Waikato yesterday - with a helicopter search by police eventually locating him sunbathing at a beach.

A 49-year-old boatie believed to be dead after falling off a boat at the mouth of the Hutt River has been identified as Uikilifi Peniamina.

Grieving family members have identified the body pulled from a Wairarapa river as that of a missing 19-year-old swimmer.

The search for the body of a 49-year-old Wellington boatie is focused on the eastern coast of Wellington Harbour.

A search has resumed for a man who fell off a boat in Wellington Harbour yesterday afternoon.

A father and son have been found safe and well this morning after spending a night in a at the base of a cliff following a kayaking trip that went wrong off the Canterbury coast.

Forensic experts will try to identify the body of a man found on a walking track in the Coromandel as public appeals fail to shed any light.

Police are trying to identify the body of a man found on a walking track near Tairua in the Coromandel this afternoon.