Nigel Holland of Blackheath admits he put a "few dings in the dome" of the Google Trekker filming device that he carted around the Blue Mountains for eight days last year.
Bending down under the rock overhangs on the National Pass walk, weaving through the thick Blue Gum Forest, or traversing the iconic Three Sisters, he covered 82km with the 19kg device, all the while filming a bird's eye view of his bushwalking experience that has put Blue Mountains National Park on Google Street View.
"I gave it some character," he said of the damage to the silent but heavy device, which takes 360-degree photos by using 15 cameras and taking a photo every three seconds. NSW National Parks is the first Australian organisation to partner with Google as part of the trekker loan program to map the most popular bushwalking tracks.
Using a Google Street View trekker, National Parks staff captured more than 1100km of stunning natural vistas from 25 national parks.
The backpack-mounted trekker has been specifically designed to go off the grid and Mr Holland, a field officer with 22 years experience, was chosen to map the Mountains because he was one of the fittest and most experienced.
"When I was doing the walk I was thinking I'm not just doing it myself, I'm taking a lot of other people with me," Mr Holland said.
"Some people from overseas can't get down here because they can't afford it, others might have a disability. It's a planning tool [for bushwalkers] and National Parks can use it as a resource."
NSW National Parks Upper Mountains area manager Richard Kingswood said the Google Trekker was a "great opportunity for people who are unable to experience the stunning network of Blue Mountains walking tracks and lookouts for themselves".
"They can see degree of difficulty, number of steps... it's a wonderful tool for anyone researching outdoor excursions in order to better plan their bush walks with an increased level of safety," Mr Kingswood said.
Some of the other sites covered include: Federal Pass, Grand Canyon track, Red Hands Cave walking track, the Ruined Castle walking track, Pierces Pass to Blue Gum Forest, Lockleys Pylon walking track, Govetts Leap lookout, the Furber Steps-Scenic Railway walking track, Echo Point to Scenic World via Giant Stairway and many more.
"By loaning Trekker equipment to organisations like NPWS, we can capture images from new locations more quickly, and share more of Australia's beautiful landscapes with the world," Google Earth Outreach program manager, Karin Tuxen-Bettman said.
"There were almost 4.3 million visits to Blue Mountains National Park in 2014, making it one of the state's most popular national parks," Ms Tuxen-Bettman said.
She hoped the new Street View imagery of the Blue Mountains and other NSW national parks would inspire explorers from Australia and around the world to take an active interest in visiting these parks.
Visit Google Maps or: http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/google-trekker.
