Irishman survives 65-foot fall in NZ

An Irishman is recovering after escaping serious injury in a New Zealand fall.

An Irishman is recovering after escaping serious injury in a New Zealand fall.

Northern Irish tourist Desmond Loyn (19) was attempting to take a photo from the Falls River swing bridge in Abel Tasman National Park when he fell 20 metres (65 feet) onto river rocks..

However, he sustained only cuts and bruises and is now recovering in South Island's Nelson Hospital.

The university student had almost reached the end of the bridge when he turned to take a photograph.

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"I leaned forward and remember feeling a bit woozy and a bit dizzy," he told the Nelson Evening Mail. "I closed my eyes and I could hear the trees and then boulders going thud, thud. It seemed a long way down."

Mr Loy managed to scramble out of the river on to boulders. Some time after the fall he attracted the attention of British tourists on the bridge above and one of them ran 30 minutes to raise the alarm.