A search will resume today for a missing man thought to have been swept away in a river in Central Otago.

Grave fears are held for a man believed to have fallen into the Clutha River in central Otago this afternoon.

A police search and rescue team looking for missing Pahiatua man John Campbell have found a body. Mr Campbell, 64, was last seen leaving his Pahiatua home, in the Tararua district, for work at 6.45am yesterday.

A tramper from the Czech Republic who broke both legs after a sheer 30m fall on to jagged rocks in the Buckler Burn near Glenorchy on Lake Wakatipu, may have survived only because he landed on his pack.

A body found in a crashed car near Napier yesterday has been formally identified as missing motorist Alex Binns, police say.

Alex Binns turns 70 on Wednesday but instead of celebrating, his family are pleading for help to find him.

Quick-witted rescuers scrawled a line in the beach to point others to the site of a helicopter crash.

In a scene straight out of a desert island castaway story, a line scrawled in the beach pointed rescuers to a helicopter crash in the sea near Whangarei today, helping save a pilot's life.

A 23-year-old man has been taken to hospital after being pulled from the sea after his helicopter crashed off the Northland coast. He was the pilot and only occupant of the chopper and escaped with minor injuries.

An air search has started off the Northland coast after reports an aircraft may have crashed into the sea.

Sealing the Pike River mine could see vital evidence lost, the lawyer for the families of those killed says.

A woman clung to the side of a cliff face for eight hours after becoming stranded in rising tides.

A spokesman for the Pike River miners' families says the Prime Minister has been getting false information from the wrong people, and a decision to halt the recovery effort was rushed.