A team of 50 volunteers and rescuers have returned to Haast for the night after spending the day searching for the body of Canadian tourist Connor Hayes.

Searchers looking for missing Canadians Connor Hayes and Joanna Lam have recovered a woman's body from the beach near Haast this afternoon.

The search for two missing Canadians on the West Coast has shifted to a recovery operation, police say.

The chance of finding a Canadian couple alive after their rental van was hurled down a remote West Coast gorge in a landslide is now very remote, police say.

Relatives of a Canadian pair whose van has been found smashed to pieces are holding out hope for their loved ones as police say they're looking for bodies.

It is likely a landslide in the Haast Pass hurled the campervan that two missing Canadian tourists were travelling in last Tuesday into the flooded Haast River.

Police searchers have released a haunting photograph of the wrecked campervan chassis belonging to two missing Canadian tourists.

Police continue their search for two Canadian tourists missing in the South Island, as fears mount following the discovery of parts of their wrecked van.

Wellington Police have re-opened a missing person case from 2008 after receiving a new lead.

Frederick "Rick" Hayward was last seen leaving his Hamilton home in Thames Street about 5pm on Monday night.

A 24-year-old woman who was missing overnight after going to a Taranaki beach has been found safe today.

It appears missing Karamea man Andrew Ross White, 58, had almost reached the end of his Heaphy Track trek - an adventure on his bucket list - before he was swept away.

Family of seven missing crew members on board the Nina are convinced they're alive and want the search to begin again, despite no sign of them since June 4.

Human remains have been found in the search for Andrew Ross White in the Heaphy area of the South Island.

Searchers looking for Karamea tramper Andrew Ross White, last seen entering the famous Heaphy Track, are following up reports of a sighting by a member of the public.

Badly-injured skier Toby Kravet warded off hypothermia and death by repeating four sets of exercises over the 17 hours he lay in snow near Treble Cone.

An elderly skier found alive after going missing on Treble Cone ski-field spent a night in the open with two broken legs.

A body found in the Pauatahanui Inlet last night has been identified as Julie Ann Springer, who was the focus of a search operation in the Kapiti area, police say.

An elderly Whangamata woman who has been missing for a week had recently booked and paid for tickets to travel to Norfolk Island and South Africa, says a friend.

The man whose body was found near the Heathcote River in Christchurch this morning has been identified as Jeff de Moulin, aged 41, of Woolston.

A woman walking her 11-year-old brother to school found a body beside the Heathcote River in Woolston shortly after 9am.