A Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion found a fishing boat with engine failure before it drifted onto reefs near Tonga overnight.

An injured 30-year-old tramper has been flown to Nelson hospital after her husband tramped out of the Kahurangi National Park to get help.

New Zealanders who risked their lives to save others have been recognised at the New Zealand Search and Rescue Awards.

Former Olympic yachtsman Geoff Smale's body has been recovered from Mount Duppa.

The wreckage of former Olympian Geoff Smale's microlight was found on Mount Duppa in the Bryant Range.

Rescuers have appealed for help in their search for a former Olympic sailor missing since taking off in his microlight.

The wife of a former Olympic sailor and prominent businessman was last night waiting in hope for news.

Handwritten letters from students in Feilding have warmed the hearts of emergency service workers in quake-stricken Christchurch.

A body has been pulled from the water after a light plane crashed into the ocean near Orewa Beach, north of Auckland. Pieces of the wreckage are washing up on the beach.

Kiwi rescue team members return to NZ today after a week searching for bodies in rubble and icy blizzards in Japan.

Freezing temperatures accompany hunt for survivors in devastated coastal town

Two New Zealand rescue workers in Japan have had to be decontaminated after they were found to have been exposed to radiation after landing at the Fukushima airport.

New Zealand's Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team in Japan are settled in the northern part of the country and about to start work helping to find survivors of Friday's magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami.

Most of the firefighters who have worked day and night since the quake have no homes to return to.