Peter Clark fells a wilding pine, home to a sly treehouse on his land in Queenstown.
A Queenstown landowner has taken a chainsaw to a fir holding the tree house of an "Aussie bludger".
Peter Clark cut down the Douglas fir - estimated to be about 28 years old - on Saturday morning, bringing the big tree house crashing down.
It was built without permission twomonths ago by a young Australian carpenter, who had been living there.
Tonight, the Australian builder, Andy Marshall, told Newshub said he was walking to the track when one of his friends told him the bad news. When he reached the site the tree hut was on the ground.
Clark said he had owned the land for about nine years.
Peter Clark, with his grandson Archer, chopped down the tree. Photo / Otago Daily Times
The tree was dropped in one piece, he said.
"It was really spectacular. It disintegrated. If you'd heard the crash, when that thing went down the cliff and shattered into a million pieces, it was one hell of a noise."
Last month, Mountain Scene spoke to "Andy", the carpenter, who said he was living in the tree house, off Sunshine Bay's Arawata Bridle Track.
The 20-year-old did not want to give his surname but said he did not think the landowner would mind.
But Clark, 62, a former firefighter, was furious at his cheek. He wanted the police to intervene but they said no crime had been committed.
Instead, his two sons, both in their 20s, came down from Christchurch to help with the "eviction".
Both went up into the tree house.
It "went down the cliff and shattered into a million pieces". Photo / Supplied
"It looks like the Aussie bludger was still living there," Clark said.
"There was lots of stuff inside: an air rifle, fresh eggs, butter, other food, a gas cooker, couch, chilly bins, obviously lots of beer, a pipe for drugs.
"And condoms. I'm not sure how many girlfriends he's had up there."
Clark took some of the items home for safe-keeping and said Andy could come around and collect them.
