It's just making the best of every single day. And the fur's flying in Dunedin. Basically, if it's furry and got four legs, it doesn't belong here. It sounds harsh, but let's kill it. Due to the live nature of Close Up, captions for some items may be incomplete. ONE News captions by June Yeow and Glenna Casalme. Close Up captions by Jessica Boell and Desney Shaw. Ever looked at something to buy online, so you slipped into a local retailer to check it out or try it on for size? Our strong dollar will see offshore internet shopping top the billion-dollar mark this year. And traditional stores aren't happy. Adding to their woes, NZ Post is launching a new service to make overseas shopping even easier. Are we consigning our retail shops into showrooms for online shoppers? Phil Vine with the trend retailers fear will cost both sales and jobs. FAST ACTION MUSIC Arcade Skate Shop, just off Auckland's K Road. Like, Undefeated, Diamond Supply, Converse skate shoes, you know, Vans. Uh, Carhartt ` good brands, man. Really great brands. Big US names. Yeah, man. Grab this one. Many young customers trying but not buying. They'll come in. They'll be, like, 'Hey, man, I found these shoes that you guys got for, like, $30 'on this website. Like, do you mind if I try them on and see how they fit and stuff like that, 'and then I'm gonna go buy them from there.' That's pretty cheeky. Yeah, but it didn't` it didn't really register with him, you know. He was just, like, 'Oh, but it's the same thing. Like, what's the difference to you?' The difference is retailers like Mike are missing out. And obviously any business that goes outside of NZ impacts on NZ retailers, impacts on NZ job opportunities. SKATEBOARD RUMBLES This year 1.9 million NZers will spend an average of $1600 online ` $1.1 billion of it overseas. Enter NZ Post launching a new online service. What YouShop is about is allowing you, the customer, when you're shopping in the United States, to get your products sent to you from the States through to NZ via our own parcel service. # I want candy. # Some US retailers won't send to NZ. Others, like GAP, charge heaps to ship us their candy. A $60 shirt could cost you $40 in shipping. So NZ Post wants a slice of the online action. Which is curious, given that it was the internet that put the final nail in the coffin of snail mail. We know, um, statistically and globally, that, of course, traditional mail volumes are in decline. That's not new news. But parcels are growing, and that's part of why we're doing this. Here's an example. To buy this skateboard in Mike's shop, it's $149. If you go online and get it from a shop in Baltimore, it's $67.19. But they only ship within the States. YouShop will get it sent to their warehouse in Portland, and on to NZ for $31.50. The total price to land it here, just short of a hundie, saving yourself a cool 50. Is all that $50 yours? > Yeah, I mean, basically, but it's, like, you know, that goes into the expenses of running a shop. That goes into the expense of me putting the grip tape on the board for you. It's not like it's some kind of crazy profiteering thing. I can assure you that retailers in NZ aren't creaming it. The`The average net profit to sales across the NZ industry is about 3%. What do you say to NZ retailers? This online, overseas shopping is hurting them. The reality is this is a service that's meeting an existing demand. But by enabling that you are putting the screws on NZ retailers. It's consumer choice, right? I can choose to go and get service in a store and buy it here if I want to. If I want to buy offshore, that's what I'm going to do as a customer. But it is affecting NZ retailers. Correct? > Online trading in offshore markets, yes. It's a little irresponsible in the fact that it's probably going to hurt the smaller businesses the most, you know? Every skateboard that we sell really counts, you know. That's` That's probably going to make things more difficult. The Retailers Association, though, supportive of the new service. If you're going to make that choice to shop offshore, uh, then you can do it with a degree of confidence. I still think the big issue is that we need to see some equity and fairness around the tax situation. One of the reasons your offshore purchases are so cheap is if it's less than 400 bucks, you don't pay GST or import duties. Basically, we're subsidising offshore retailers. We are giving away something in the order of $150-$180 million worth of tax a year. Effectively, you're a state-owned enterprise allowing people to avoid that tax. Well,... it's, uh, not our place to comment on the current tax structures. That's really the government's remit. Sure, but do you see their point? Mm. I'm not sure I'd agree with the point. I don't think we're enabling tax avoidance. I think we're simply actually working within the confines as they're laid down now. Mike's way round the online pinch ` to tap into the local community. We have all of these friends that make stuff. They make art; they make music; they make clothes. They're producing their own clothing line. We, sort of, reassessed this for a second. We were like, 'Man, if we sell one of our T-shirts, 'that's like selling five of those overseas T-shirts, you know.' Your skateboard man is absolutely right. What he's doing is he's giving himself a point of difference, and that's what it's all about. There's no way that a kid can come in and buy it somewhere else for cheaper. Cos if it's made here in NZ, you can't go online and buy it cheaply overseas. Joining me now in the studio is Tim Morris, the managing director and retail analyst of Coriolis Research. CAN BUSINESES HERE COMPETE? IS THERE AN ISSUE HERE? IF YOU'RE IN FILM, MUSIC, BOOKS, YOU'RE STRUGGLING. ACCOMMODATION, FOOD SERVICE, YOU CAN'T GO TO A RESTAURANT ON THE INTERNET. BUT THEY'RE PREDICTING A 14% ANNUAL INCREASE. FOR SOME RETAILERS, THAT MUST BE WORRYING. DEFINITELY. IT'S GOING TO IMPACT SOME SECTORS. OTHER ONES IT'S IRRELEVANT. CHANGE IS CONSTANT. THIS CITY HAD 1000 HAY MERCHANTS YEARS AGO. WHERE ARE THEY NOW? WE DON'T NEED THEM? GET INTO A DIFFERENT BUSINESS, OR FIND A WAY OF MAKING IT WORK FOR YOU? I THINK THE SKATEBOARD OPERATOR HAD THE RIGHT ANSWER ` DEVELOPING CUSTOMISED PRODUCTS. IF YOU GO OVERSEAS, YOU CAN BUY SOMETHING NO ONE ELSE HAS. IF I GO OUT WEARING THE SAME SHIRT AS SOMEONE, I FEEL LIKE A DORK. IF I BUY SOMETHING OVERSEAS, I FEEL GOOD. YOU'RE BECOMING SHOW ROOM. PEOPLE AT HOME 'I LIKE THE LOOK OF THAT. I'LL POP DOWN TO A STORE AND TRY IT ON.' IF I WAS A RETAILER, IT WOULD DRIVE ME BALMY. NZ POST IS GETTING SOME FLACK. ARE THEY ENABLING PEOPLE TO TAKE THE BUSINESS OUT? THEY'RE NOT DOING ANYTHING THAT ISN'T ALREADY AVAILABLE.� YOU CAN SIGN UP FOR DIFFERENT SERVICES ALREADY. A LOT OF COMPANIES ARE ALREADY SHIPPING TO NZ AS IT IS. BY SETTING UP THEIR OWN SERVICES, THEY GIVE IT A HALO EFFECT. IT'S NOT SOME DODGY CROWD. ONE OF THE ISSUES WHICH WILL HAVE TO BE ADDRESSED IS TAX ISSUE. YOU'RE BUYING FROM OVERSEAS, YOU'RE GETTING AROUND IT. CAN YOU SEE THAT GETTING ADDRESSED? I THINK WHEN THE SIZE OF THE PRIZE GETS BIG ENOUGH, THE TREASURY WILL FIGURE OUT A WAY TO GET IT. IT'S NOT LIKE THEY HAVEN'T NOTICED THERE'S MONEY HERE. IT'S THE TRANSACTION COST THAT'S THE CHALLENGE. HOW DO THEY TAKE THEIR $1 OUT OF AN $8 PARCEL? SOTHE WORRY FOR THE GOVERNMENT IS THEY'RE NOT GETTING THEIOR SHARE. YOU'VE ALREADY BEEN ABLE TO BUY THINGS OVERSEAS VIA CATALOGUE. NOTHING'S CHANGED. WHERE IS THIS GOING TO GO? IS IT A GENERATIONAL THING? ARE YOUNGER PEOPLE COMING THROUGH FAR MORE TECHNOLOGICAL? IS THIS GOING TO GROW? IS IT THE ENDOF THE SHOPPING CENTRE? IT'S NOT THE END OF THE SHOPPING CENTRE. IF YOU LOOK AT BOOKS, MUSIC, IF YOU LOOK AT CDS, DVDS, THEY'RE GOING DIGITAL ANY WAY. IF I BUY IT FROM AMAZON, AND THEY DOWNLOAD IT TO ME, I'VE BOUGHT. IF THEY SHIP IT TO ME, I'VE BOUGHT IT INTO NZ. THOSE INDUSTRIES WILL BE GONE IN 10 YEARS. MAYEB SPEND MORE ON DINNER. TIME TO GET REAL. TIM MORRIS, THANKS. Are the retailers keeping pace with the way shoppers want to shop? What do you think? Go to our website or email us at closeup@tvnz.co.nz And we're on Facebook too. Coming up ` from planning his own funeral... I think the words were, 'We won't sugar-coat this.' ...to living life. I revisit old friends... Making the best of every single day. ...with amazing survival stories. Trade union activist Matt McCarten and teenager Eilish Wilkes live worlds apart, but they share something. They're both survivors. Matt was told two years ago he could have weeks to live. I talked to Matt at the time about doing a story on him before he went. Well, he's still here. Eilish Wilkes I did do a story on five years ago. She was 11, adorable and battling a brain tumour with a maturity and acceptance beyond her years. So one good thing about a programme finishing ` you get to dictate a bit about what you want to do. And I wanted to see what had happened to Matt and Eilish. Hi. My name is Eilish. I'm 11 years old. I've been collecting teddy bears ever since I started having chemotherapy, which was when I was about 2 years old. Five years ago, Eilish was all about teddies and all things pink... Bunbun, Barney, Cuddles. ...and coping with an incurable brain tumour that, frankly, could've taken her at any time. It is really hard, and it's painful at times, and it's quite... it's just not easy. Five years later... Oh wow. This is a little bit different, Eilish. Flowers... Yes. ...and shoes. Yes. Completely different from what it used to be. You're a regular teenager. Yeah. Next thing you know you'll be telling me you've got a boyfriend. I have. He's 17. His name's Matt. And he buys flowers. He bought me flowers yesterday, yes. It was our one-month anniversary the other day. It was very special, very romantic. Boys who buy girlfriends flowers for their one-month anniversary spoil it for every other man on the planet. You know this, don't you? (LAUGHS) Yeah, well... Five years ago, Eilish was more concerned about her mum and dad than herself. It's hard because,... oh, it's a lot to worry about. < Yeah? Mm-hm. < Do you think they worry sometimes and don't like to show you? I think so. < Yeah? Mm. Are you still looking after them? I still worry about them, yeah. I still worry about them, absolutely. Are they going all right? Um,... I think so, yeah. I think they both get a bit stressed at times, yeah. Is she hope? > I'm sure she's hope for a lot of people, a lot of parents too, that you look at the positive side of everything and make the most of things. What amazed me five years ago was that she was worried about you. > I know. About you and Pat. > Yes. The child is worried about the parents. > I think she had accepted the reality of the situation she was in. And she's grown up and come such a long way. We're just so lucky. There always is hope, absolutely, yes. And I think it's not, um... it's how you deal with things too, and it's just making the best of every single day and, you know, living life to the fullest and just enjoying every day. From Eilish's teenage world of shoes, boyfriends and hope to the gritty front line of the union movement. Two, four, six, eight. Matt McCarten too was given little chance ` a cancer so rare the end was inevitable. I think the words were, 'We won't sugar-coat this. You're not gonna come out of this.' I said, 'Well, how long?' 'Hmm, six weeks.' I told my wife, and her brother had died of the same disease, so my wife said, 'Bring him home to die with us.' It was so serious, Matt and I were planning the funeral. And he said, 'Look, I'll leave it to you, brother. You choose the coffin.' So we would've chosen a beautiful coffin, no doubt about it. But he said, 'Don't get too flash,' cos he's a union man. Everyone who's ever been given a death sentence, everyone ` 'if only you ate acorns which grow in Mexico and you stand on your head, you're right.' It's a good thing I believe in science and evidence. He also believed in being disarmingly frank about his condition. And after moving in with Willie and his wife to die, Matt McCarten defied the odds. They must've been complaining two years later you're still there. They put the rent up. I had to go. He had no rent to start off with, but the chances started getting better. Well, as I kept surviving, you see, I sort of felt I was hanging around. I was going, 'Hang on, isn't that six weeks?' It's, like, 'Oh, you're still here.' I see a lot of the patients ` well, the partners of whom. When I started, there was a group of us, about 20 of us. I don't think there's any of them left but me, and that's always a bit sad when you go back. There's` You know, you're in a waiting room all by yourself. So what is that helps the Eilishes and the Matts defy those odds? Matt McCarten is one of the most determined people I've ever met in my life. He is just like a tiger. He's got an iron will ` an absolute iron will. We're all realistic about what we're up against, but everybody was focused on her having the best life that she could in the circumstances that had been give to her. And it's happened. Did you ever think you'd be a good news story? No. (LAUGHS) It's what I do. I know it's a bit wango. It's what you do that gets you up. It's not about yourself. Come on, we're all pretty boring when it comes down to it. It's not waiting for the storm to pass; it's learning to dance in the rain. Ooh, you've got very philosophical. Where did that come from? It's something I read once, and I think it's a good motto to live by. It's a very good motto to live by. Two very extraordinary people. Matt, of course, is still fighting the fight on behalf of his union, Unite, and Eilish is heavily involved in the Child Cancer Foundation, which helped her and her family so much. And you can help too with their Christmas gifting programme. Are you going to say no to Eilish? Go to www.childcancer.org.nz. We'll put those details on our website as well. Now five things you need to know, and today we are fired up about the Tongariro eruption. We've co-opted Paul Hobbs to tell us all about it. Eruptions occurred on Tongariro intermittently from 1855 to 1897. Now volcanologists are saying this reawakening could be the start of a prolonged period of activity. Forget Vesuvius or Krakatoa. An eruption here at Taupo in 180 AD was the biggest on the planet in the past 5000 years. It's said to have turned the sky red above Rome and China. Number three ` bring on the doom merchants. Even though it was Ngauruhoe, not Tongariro, that featured in the Lord of the Rings movies, world media are saying Mt Doom's finally blown apart. Eruptions are a boon for the exfoliation industry. It creates pumice. A bit of romance and retribution? According to Maori legend, Tongariro and Taranaki fought for the love of the beautiful Pihanga. Taranaki lost and moved to New Plymouth. But Tongariro's eruptions are a warning for Taranaki never to return. Just ahead ` we're in the buffer zone... Eating little chicks out of the nest. ...keeping the Otago Peninsula vermin free. Basically, if it's furry and got four legs, it doesn't belong here. A lot of Dunedin was settled following the highland clearances. Now the good folk of Otago are preparing for a clearance of their own, but it's not people they want rid of ` rather possums. Residents of the Otago Peninsula, which includes 10,000ha of farmland, native bush and even townships, want them gone. It will be no easy task, and as Megan Martin discovered, it will be the biggest pest eradication ever attempted on the mainland. Many believe these are the best kind of possums in NZ ` dead ones. What we're trying to do ` basically if it's furry and got four legs, doesn't belong here. It sounds harsh, but let's kill it. On the Otago Peninsula residents are hell-bent on annihilating all possums. That's a pretty big call. It is a big call, but we have the methods and technologies to deal to it. Once the Peninsula's possum-free they'll use buffer zones to keep it that way. Look at it. You've got, essentially, a big island that's connected to Dunedin City by about 2 Ks and the 10,000ha we've got on the Otago Peninsula is protected by water. And so, really, if we can seal off the end where it's attached to the mainland, we've got a series of islands that we can start working on to achieve that goal. Trapping on the northern section has already achieved solid results. In the first year we worked, we got 3500 possums, and then the second year we're down to about 600. That's encouraging news for a land mass dubbed the wildlife capital of NZ. The Otago Peninsula has got 66 different types of bird species ` 44 of them endemic, only found in NZ. We've got the iconic royal albatross ` the largest wingspan, 3m ` right down to the little rifleman, which is a little bit smaller than my thumb, really. The project is using every weapon at its disposal. What kind of methods are you using to eradicate possums here? We're using Victor traps, Megan; we're also using the cage traps around the urban areas, around homes; a lot of poisoning with Feratox; and follow up after that with Timms traps, which are kill traps. They kill them outright? That's right. The locals have created a trust and raised nearly $500,000. Contractors are doing most of the work using GPS to mark every kill. They know it's a huge job. It is ambitious, but I think it's doable, and I think even if we don't get to eradication in a short space of time, we'll still get to zero density, and with the next wave of technology, we'll achieve eradication. Perhaps most importantly, they've got the community on board. And how many have you caught here? I've only caught two here, but I've caught five round at my mother's property. Poisoning is illegal around housing, so locals are using traps to catch the furry pests. They're so destructive, and they do a lot of damage to the native bush, and, of course, the birdlife, there's documentation of them eating little chicks, eggs out of the nests, so hopefully the birdlife will just increase phenomenally. To measure just how effective this possum control project is, there are several monitoring programmes running at the same time. This tracking tunnel checks to see the presence of rodents, and there are also bird and vegetation monitoring sites. It's too early for wildlife results yet, but long-time back-yard trapper Rod Morris reckons it won't take long for it to flourish. We've killed between 300 or 400 over about 10 or so years, and initially the first results were people's rose bushes were flowering, and everybody loved us for that, and then the second result was kereru started coming in and the tuis. And it says, 'Danger poison. Feratox.' That's the name of the poison that we use. Local children are also involved, with safety talks a top priority They're just for possums. But don't ever put your hand in the middle of it. If the next generation continues with this eradication legacy, the days of possums on the peninsula are surely numbered. We asked what you thought about the growing trend of buying stuff from overseas online and what it means for local retailers. Most of you are firmly in favour of letting your mouse do the walking. Andrew Stevenson sums up the feeling. He says... And Suze points out... That's NZ Close Up. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2012