A Fire Service has disagreed strongly with some earlier witnesses at the CTV inquest that there was confusion over leadership on February 22 last year.

Search and rescue units were told to stop scouring the collapsed CTV Building's rubble for survivors within 24 hours of it coming down.

A coroner's inquest today heard from a senior search and rescue expert who described the "chaos" at the disaster site when he arrived two hours after the building's collapse.

The inquest into the CTV deaths has heard of frustrations caused by delays and chaos in the hours after the catastrophe.

A man who spent three days lost in Te Urewera has made sizeable donations to his rescuers and searchers and says he'll continue to donate the same amount each year.

An Australian tramper with a serious lower leg injury was lifted off the Motatapu Track near Wanaka late on Tuesday afternoon.

A five-year-old autistic boy was found safe and well after a frantic search in Rimutaka Forest Park yesterday.

Having been faced with the prospect of drinking his own urine to stay alive while lost in the Ureweras, a bacon and egg breakfast never tasted so good for Desmond Kuik.

The wife of a hunter found after three days lost in the Ureweras was last night able to tell their three young children: "Papa is coming home."

A hunter who has been missing since Sunday in the Ureweras has this afternoon been found alive and well.

A hunter drank puddle water to slake his thirst and snuggled up to his pig dogs to stay warm after getting lost in a rugged area south of Dunedin for more than 24 hours.

The search continues for a Tauranga man missing since the stolen dinghy he and four others were in capsized in heavy seas.

The parents of a man washed out to sea while whitebaiting on Sunday are urging people to wear lifejackets, even if they are on shore.

The whitebaiter swept out to sea at the Rakaia River mouth last night has been named by police.

A whitebaiter in Canterbury was spotted by a rescue helicopter, then moments later swept out to sea.