dont know this bloke at all, so have nothing vested one way or the other.......but.
i think some of you good old boys that are poking crap at this bloke and his antics should probably get on google earth or your preferred virtual map system and check out the mouth of Milford sound or any other part of Fiordland for that matter, should,nt be too hard as it sounds like the internet might be where you spend most of your time, and you will see that the terrain is tiger country, or better still go and have a look and do the place and your mouths justice. It would be a bad choice to set up an Insurance scam.
He did say he was low level, his choice but what ever happened he done alright he got out and got home.
Insurance scam maybe who knows, there was the guy who claimed he put his Cessna 185 in the sea off Ash vegas a few years back and it turned up in a container in a trucking yard a year or two later.
Either way if it went as reported he done very well.