The Australian squatter who built a built a treehouse on a Queenstown couple's property and lived in it for around two months has defended his controversial dwelling.
Twenty-three-year-old Andy Marshall, who works as a carpenter, hand-built the 10-person hi-rise, complete with a kitchen, at the top of a 30 year-old Douglas Fir.
Mr Marshall then made himself at home, with stashes of beer, cannabis and condoms.
Unfortunately, he failed to ask the permission of the landowner, Peter Clark, who described the squatter as an "Aussie bludger" and cut the tree down.
Appearing on Three's The Project, Mr Marshall celebrated the hut's effect on his sex life.
"It's an absolute womenslayer," Mr Marshall said. "You tell someone you have a treehouse and yeah, straight back there. So you gotta be safe out there, kids."
"The whole place was littered with cans, and cannabis, and condoms. I can see why you didn't want to leave," said host Ben Hurley.
Mr Marshall was disappointed at the loss of his sex nest, and voiced his support for cannabis legalisation.
"I'm spewing, I only found out the news today that the treehouse had got cut down," he said.
"I had a pipe there ready for smoking marijuana - but I'm just going to say they should just legalise weed, because it's good for everyone."
His answers are unlikely to please Mr Clark, who gave Newshub a tour of the site.
"Bloody hell I can't believe what he's done down here. Look at the size of the thing - it's a bloody house in a tree," he said.
"This is all part of his bedding, his rats nest I guess we call it he was a rat himself."
"We just don't need pests in this country like that. They're just like I guess the Queensland fruit fly, we don't want them."
And Mr Clark has this warning for Mr Marshall: "We'll deal to him the same way we deal to the tree house."
But Mr Marshall seemed unfazed and unrepentant.
"At first I thought I was building on the Government's land," he said. "You wake up in the morning and see the sunset from my point of view - it's the best thing in the world."
Newshub.
