Pete Bethune walking again after snake bite

Kiwi conservationist Pete Bethune is walking again but remains in hospital nearly a fortnight after he was bitten by one of South America’s deadliest snakes. Hamilton-born Bethune was bitten by a deadly ferde-lance snake just after Christmas while working in the jungle in Costa Rica’s Peninsula de Osa National Park. He has been in hospital since. In a video update from his hospital bed, Bethune said he was ‘‘feeling a lot better’’ and had begun walking again using a zimmer frame, joking he had named it ‘‘the Ferrari’’. The snake’s venom has had many effects on Bethune. Photos taken from his hospital bed showed the snake bite caused his entire leg to swell to nearly double its normal size.