Aviation bosses have ordered the biggest grounding of aircraft in the country's history amid fears a helicopter fault may be behind the deaths of two men.

The Civil Aviation Authority has grounded a series of helicopters after a fatal crash this week.

Prime Minister John Key has paid a personal tribute to one of two men who died in a helicopter crash near Queenstown yesterday.

Queenstown man Verdun Waghorn was a UFO sceptic - until he photographed one. Now he wants to know if the truth is out there.

A man who crashed a drone into a Queenstown hotel and then left the scene could be prosecuted for breaking civil aviation rules.

The parents of Corey Docherty, who died after being found in a Queenstown alleyway, have arrived in NZ, and his grandfather says he was "living his dream".

Plans for a huge expansion of New Zealand's most luxurious golfing and lifestyle resort have been unveiled today.

A tourist, who suffered 'significant' injuries after a fall in a Queenstown alleyway, died in exactly the same spot and manner as a British tourist six years ago.

Friends of 22 year-old Corey Docherty, who died yesterday after he was found in a Queenstown alleyway, have already raised more than $15,000 for his family.

A young Briton is in a Christchurch spinal unit after breaking his back in a Queenstown tree climbing fall.

A dad and three children escaped uninjured when their car burst into flames in Queenstown.

Queenstown's harbourmaster isn't impressed after four men he advised to get off their inflatable airbed floated under bungy jumpers - and were fined.

The object that flew through a windscreen, killing a young driver, has never been found - and now a coroner has said, it's unlikely that it ever will be.

A Queenstown jet-boat operator says trying to find out how one of its boats hit a rock, injuring six tourists, is proving 'frustrating'.

A 12-year-old girl remains in hospital following a jetboat crash near Queenstown yesterday.

A police officer who racially abused a taxi driver in Queenstown last year has resigned.

Amended charges will be filed against three men facing kidnapping charges to include a third complainant.

Queenstown police have located the third person wanted in connection with an alleged kidnapping.

The father of a Queenstown woman caught up in an investigation into an alleged kidnapping has called for her safe return.

The father of the 22-year-old Queenstown man at the centre of an alleged kidnapping has asked for privacy to allow his son to recover from the ordeal.

Danielle Wright and family share the water with albatrosses, bottlenose dolphins and sea lions on a wilderness cruise through Doubtful Sound.

A Chinese billionaire behind the controversial buy-up of the Crafar dairy farms and Lochinver Station says New Zealanders have nothing to fear from his investments in the country.

The identity of the new owner of Queenstown's Hilton hotel has been revealed - and it's the group behind the controversial Crafar farm and Lochinver Station purchase.

The newlyweds who ended up in court after a honeymoon fruit fight have been invited to spend their first anniversary back in Queenstown for free.

A honeymooning couple who were arrested and both charged with assault following a fruit fight at an exclusive Queenstown hotel have been granted diversion.

The owners of two dogs that mauled a 3-year-old boy in Queenstown this week are ''distraught'', his mother says.