Incredible images of Australia's bushfires have been captured by Kiwi pilots.
The pilots, who are right on the frontline of the ongoing fight, have put in thousands of hours this season waterbombing fires and saving homes - and they say this summer's crisis is the worst they've ever seen.
The images capture the fire and fury of the ongoing bushfire crisis, all of it witnessed by Duncan Gourley, a Nelson pilot helping the fight.
"[It's] Mother Nature at its worst," says Gourley. "It's just huge compared to what happens at home."
He has flown more than 100 days since August in a waterbombing chopper over New South Wales.
One fire from December is burned in his memory, when he witnessed a blaze in the Blue Mountains consuming a cliffside from bottom to top.
"It's pretty impressive when you see it climbing rock faces and it's climbing as fast as the helicopter can climb," he says.
Gourley is one of four Kiwi pilots in the NSW town of Tumut.
They've battled Australia's blazes for years now, but this fire season is not like the rest.
Hugh Acton-Adams is the air-attack pilot - spotting the fires Gourley will fight.
"Chaos," he says of this fire season. "It's unbelievable. I've never seen fire like it."
Gourley's waterbombing chopper carries 900 litres and will make dozens of drops each journey, sometimes hundreds in the course of a day.
They're supported by Australia's huge air tankers, dropping 15,000 litres of fire retardant.
It's a coordinated effort on the air and the ground.
But Gourley says it's worth it to help a neighbour.
"If we had a bad fire season Australians would be over to help us just as quick," he says.
Newshub is aware of at least six other Kiwi pilots doing the same in New South Wales.
Among that group is a family which is known for heroics in the air.
Pete and Dave Law are twin brothers who have been flying at Merimbula in the New South Wales south.
Mark Law is their other brother - one of the pilots at Whakaari / White Island who bravely flew the victims out.
Remarkable deeds seem to run in the family, and there are many other New Zealanders helping too.
And they'll keep coming back till the fire's extinguished - however many months, or flights, it takes.
