KEY POINTS:
Attempting to take the perfect photograph of the Abel Tasman National Park yesterday nearly cost a young Irish tourist his life.
Desmond Loy, 19, was recovering with cuts and bruises in Nelson Hospital today after losing his footing on the Falls River swing bridge and falling about 20 metres into the river yesterday morning.
Mr Loy, a university student from Banbridge, County Down, told the Nelson Mail today he couldn't believe he hadn't broken his back or fractured his skull.
He said he'd almost got to the end of the swing bridge when he turned to take a photograph of the scene behind him.
"I leaned forward and remember feeling a bit woozy and a bit dizzy," Mr Loy told the newspaper.
"I closed my eyes and I could hear the trees and then boulders going thud, thud. It seemed a long way down."
Mr Loy, only three weeks into his New Zealand holiday, said he managed to scramble out of the water with a bleeding nose.
He said he waited on boulders for what seemed like hours before attracting the attention of English tourists on the bridge.
A man ran for 30 minutes to Torrent Bay to raise the alarm.
Pilot Tim Douglas-Clifford, of Garden City Helicopters, which operates Nelson's Summit rescue helicopter, said yesterday a paramedic was lowered to lift Mr Loy on to a boat which was used as a platform to put him into a stretcher for the flight to Nelson Hospital.
- NZPA
