I wouldnt trust a gorilla pod with the weight of a dlr and a lens. I do think there are mini-tripods that would also do the trick and prob wouldnt be much more effort to carry. I dont have any specific recommends, but woudl also be interested in hearing what has worked for people.
You just need to get one of the IA crew over to NZ to fish with you! 😉
If it’s any help, I did try one of those Gorillapods a while back, it must have been the SLR model – I was hoping it might be useful for certain situations, but it was rubbish with a big pro-type SLR and lens.
I see there is a bigger model now, the SLR zoom, this might be worth looking at……….?
It’s expensive, and I don’t use a tripod much, but the best “small” tripod I have seen is the Gitzo Traveller. It is an awesome bit of kit. Have a look around though, there seem to be some much cheaper carbon fibre alternatives out there that might well do the job.
I use a Joby Gorilla Pod SLR Zoom model with the Joby Ball Head and haven’t had any issues with it using my D200 and Tokina 11-16 2.8 or Tokina 28-70 2.8.