It has been a "bad and very sad year already" for aviation in the south, the Civil Aviation Authority says.

Tributes are flowing in today for two of New Zealand's most experienced Cessna pilots who died in a horror crash that also claimed the lives of their two children.

Four bodies - believed to be from the same family - were last night recovered from the wreckage of a light aircraft near Wanaka.

Police have recovered four bodies from a light plane that crashed near Wanaka.

Aballoon the size of Dunedin's Forsyth Barr Stadium is scheduled to lift off above the scenic Central Otago town of Wanaka on Tueday and float 34km into space.

The wife of Steve Combe, the Wanaka pilot killed in a helicopter crash, says her husband was 'larger than life'.

The death of two tourists whose campervan was swept away in a slip was the result of a "tragic coming together of a number of events", a coroner has found.

A mountaineer aiming to conquer a record 100 NZ peaks - and who once saved a companion's life in a daring rescue - is missing in Mt Aspiring National Park.

The body of a well-regarded music journalist who went missing while tramping in Mount Aspiring National Park has been found.

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 base jumper has completed what is believed to be New Zealand's biggest base jump, with a vertical drop of almost 2km.

Friends of Scott "Brock" Oliver are coming to terms with news the lively DJ and journalist is presumed drowned after going missing in high country.

A "one-off" drug deal at a Wanaka preschool has resulted in two teachers having their registrations torn up.

Volunteering circles in Wanaka have been left devastated by the death of Maureen "Mo" Schofield, who slipped and fell 40m while walking the Fern Burn Track on Monday.

A 68-year-old woman who died after slipping and falling about 40m from a walking track near Wanaka has been identified as Maureen Anne Schofield.

Wanaka man Duncan Boswell has won his battle to get to Gallipoli. He and son Rhys will be part of the New Zealand contingent attending the centenary of the World War I Anzac campaign.

Professional freestyle skier caught drink-driving is discharged without conviction.

Eveline Harvey and her family check into a well-appointed apartment in Central Otago.

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Three people killed in a horror smash in Central Otago this afternoon were all foreign nationals, police say.

A prosecution could be in the wind for TradeMe founder Sam Morgan, after a burn-off on his property on Tuesday blanketed Wanaka in smoke.

Thick smoke from a farmer's burn-off blanketed Wanaka for much of yesterday afternoon, angering some residents and perplexing tourists.

Police are still in the dark as to what caused a Dutch visitor to lie down on a dimly-lit Wanaka road before he was run over by a taxi and killed last weekend.

As an inquest begins into the death of Rutger Hale from a mystery object that smashed through his car windscreen, his family say they believe someone knows what happened.

A Dutch pedestrian killed when he was hit by a taxi in Wanaka at the weekend may have been lying on the road at the time, police say.

Police have not ruled out that a man struck and killed by a car in Wanaka overnight was lying in the road when he was hit.