Surf lifesavers are pleading with the public to take care in the water after a spate of drownings.

The search for a man feared drowned at Piha beach, west of Auckland, continued this morning.

Four people, including a child, have been rescued after spending all night clinging for dear life to their capsized dinghy.

Murray McCully has urged experts meeting in Wellington to recommend ways of preventing a tourist boat disaster from ever happening in Antarctica.

Rescuers have recovered the body of a man from Mount Aspiring National Park after he fell 30-40 metres down a bluff on Saturday night.

A fisherman whose boat sank in the middle of the night was so determined not to surrender it that he swam the waterlogged vessel nearly 1km to safety.