HADYN JONES: Tonight ` there's trouble brewing over the liquid gold flowing from these hills. Their bees are freeloading off our resource. Are these freeloading bees really pinching pollen? It's a shared resource; we should share it. Plus,... MAN: This is another emergency repair which has been there now for about six years. ...why, six years after the Christchurch quake, is this family still waiting for a payout? We are paying Vero for our stress levels. And... Think of the hardest thing you could possibly think of and then multiply it by seven. ...it's the paper round that's got Mum really upset,... I think it's bordering on child slavery. ...and the fastest man in New Zealand beat. (PANTS) I don't know how they're s'posed to do it. Welcome to the show. We lead tonight with honey wars. Yeah, for those in the business of making honey and money, of course, manuka is a source of liquid gold. Mm, but its healing powers have done little for neighbourly relations in Wanganui. Here's Anna. ANNA BURNS-FRANCIS: Buried deep in the hilly scrubland on the outskirts of Whanganui is a boundary dispute that's got two neighbours locked in a pollen war. (BUZZING) Their bees are freeloading off our resource. He's nicking your manuka flower. Well, yeah, if you put it like that, yeah. I actually said that to him, but they didn't like that term. 'They' being the neighbours, the Johnsons deny the nicking allegations. The boundary ` one on this side, on this side ` what do you do? What do you do? You` (STAMMERS) You work out a way to share it; that's what you would do. It's that 'sharing' that's got hobby beekeeper Chris Walsh in a bit of a buzz. When Chris bought a share in this block of land two years ago, he was keen to maximise its potential, this potential ` acre after acre of prime manuka. Yup, that's the honey giving everyone gold fever at the moment. Well, it's pretty tasty; that's one` one thing about it. Um, it has a lotta health benefits. Um, it's a big export earner for New Zealand. In fact, 250g of the premium sweet stuff... will set you back more than $250. So with such a lucrative patch for bees to feed from, Chris decided to put in some hives. Only, he's noticed his neighbour is doing the same thing very, very close by. Yeah, it's a bit of a funny one, because, you know, he talks to us about being neighbourly, and, um, sorta, we think he needs to have a look in the mirror. (CHUCKLES GENTLY) Chris and his business partner, Ian, own this section of land, about a third of it ` manuka-covered valleys and faces. Their neighbour, Russell Johnson, owns this section of land. This much of it is manuka. The general rule of thumb in the apiarian industry is one hive per hectare of manuka, so Chris would have 80 hives to feed off his manuka. By the same rule, Russell would have just 20 hives. Instead, he has more than 200. He's probably overstocked with bees, which makes us have to be understocked, because the area can only sustain so many bees. Russell's signed a long-term contract with Comvita. The multimillion-dollar company relies on manuka for around half of all its sales, and that's seen profits soar in recent years. That goes right up that valley there, like... On Russell's land, Comvita owns the hives, brings them in, maintains them and collects the honey. One of the sites chosen is right on the boundary, hard up against his neighbours' manuka-covered land. We have a valley; the valley is divided down the middle. It's a valley which has very concentrated manuka. It's a shared resource; we should share it. Now, this is open to interpretation, but in the bee world, this is called boundary stacking ` an allegation Russell firmly denies. No, there's n-no question; we've never been stacking any boundary. The way that we had` The` The way that we... determined the locations of the hives on our property was how to take advantage of where` where the manuka was` was located. So we thought we better ask Comvita why the hives are on the boundary and how they decided on the number of hives to put on Russell's land. We even offered to fly to the company's headquarters in Te Puke for an interview, but no one wanted to appear on camera. Instead, they sent us a statement. In response to the claim of boundary stacking, Comvita says it's already moved 'more than half the hives' off the boundary as 'a gesture of good faith'. It says it will... Comvita says it always does its best to... ...and the boundary hives are... ...but the company acknowledges it's inevitable that... And to be fair, how is a honey bee s'posed to see a boundary? A boundary fence can keep stock out, but bees are harder to control. Are you trying to tell me that` that the bees at the back can read the boundary and say, 'We'll stick to this side; we won't go over there'? Even if they do cross the boundary fence, Russell says his bees don't like manuka; most of his honey is actually from the gorse and thistles covering his farmland. We have to live with that fact, that` that they are going to also` they` they're also going to any other honey source that they can find, um, and we just take that into consideration. The way Chris sees it, the considerate thing to do would be to clear all the hives from the boundary. If we could sit down with him... and maybe Comvita... and look at, you know` they've gotta come up straight-faced about it and, um, say, 'Yeah, we are overstocked here, and, um, we do need to reduce the situation.' Neighbourly relations between the two are at an all-time low. The sting in the tail is that, for Chris and Ian to get their hives in and out, they have to cross Russell's land. There used to be just four gates on the 4km track; now there's 20, and getting through can be a frustrating experience,... but Russell says it's Chris who's caused this beehive hoo-ha, and he's certainly a man keen to get his point across. I'm not feeling that they haven't come to talk to me; I'm saying they ha` I'm annoyed because I feel they haven't` they` they've not come to talk to me. Russell says he's willing to negotiate next season's beehive boundaries, but he doesn't want them complaining to Comvita. Everything is on the table, of course, of course. It's not` It's not an issue. OK. I have no issue over this. It's just` It's like a storm in a teacup to me. I don't even understand (CHUCKLES) where it's coming from. Chris says it's a matter of perspective, which side of the fence ` or boundary ` you're on. I'm sure that if he owned all the manuka and we were doing it to him, we'd certainly hear about it. You probably don't know this, Pippa, but I'm actually a bit of world-renowned expert on bees. CHUCKLES: I did not know that. Do you know bees have five eyes? No. And bees have knees. CHUCKLES: Bee's knees. 'You're the bee's knees'? They actually have knees. (GASPS) That is good. I like that. And bees have four wings instead of two. There you go, all right, I'm gonna cut you off r` I could keep going. No, please don't. Time to test (CHUCKLES) your consumer knowledge instead. Now, dedicated followers of Fair Go will know a faulty item bought in a sale is covered by the Consumer Guarantees Act; a landlord can't charge more than four weeks' bond, and a business must collect a large faulty item at its own expense if you can't transport it without significant cost to yourself. Okey-dokey, so, time to head back to the Bay of Plenty. This is round four of the true-false challenge. It's a scorcher of a day at the Mount, and this one was a question that got you guys a bit hot under the collar. Whew! True or false? I think that would be false. False. False? I've seen people rip people off. (CHUCKLING) Both false? OK. You know, those dodgy people? Oh. I think they can. OK. That sounds a bit ridiculous, but... I have no idea. I'm gonna say false. It seems like an outrageous amount, doesn't it? It does. Yeah, it does. Both false? True? True. More than 100% interest? Seems too bad to be true, but is it? We'll tell you shortly. Now, you,... Ooh. ...you're three from three so far. Am I? Ooh, yes, you are. Wow. So what are you picking today? I'm going 'true'. I think if they set the deal and that's the deal and you accept it, then they can charge what they like. All right, we will find out soon. After the break, though ` is six years too long for an insurance claim to be sorted? The Dennis family are fighters. You do realise that's on TV and you're putting your brother in a judo hold? Their house carries the scars of the Christchurch quake,... The retaining wall along here, to use a Christchurch expression ` munted. ...but it's their insurance company that's left them feeling battered and bruised. We are paying Vero for our stress levels. Plus,... I want you to deliver 55 newspapers in 15 minutes. ...it's the paper round that's got the fastest man in New Zealand beat. (PANTS) I dunno how they're s'posed to do it. Welcome back. How would you feel about living with a rat infestation? Well, I'm glad you asked, cos for six years, the Dennis family have been forced to endure leaks, draughts and rats. They are one of thousands of Cantabrians still staring at damage from the big one, and it ain't pleasant. Here's Garth. (FLAMES CRACKLE) Fire on the hills ` a natural disaster to mark yet another anniversary of upheaval. Black smoke, bushfires, helicopters with monsoon buckets ` it's the last sorta thing you'd wanna see looking over your back fence, but just imagine that you're watching from a broken house that still hasn't been rebuilt six years after the earthquakes. (ENGINE RUMBLES) Look, there's one of the planes going up... MAN: Yeah, it is. ...to put the water! The quake-shaken Dennis family can smell the smoke from their backyard. (LAUGHS) Felix, you do realise that's on TV and you're putting your brother in a judo hold? I know. Yeah... They're bearing up, but that's because living here is a test of character every day. You're coming back with the kids; you don't look forward to it. It's not like you go, 'Yay, we're home; let's relax.' It's, 'Uh, OK, let's see what's flooded. Let's see what's fallen down. 'Let's see what's broken before we actually come in,' and we` we hide a lot from the children. But try hiding this. Cos the retaining wall along here is completely ` to use a Christchurch expression ` munted. Temporary repairs that have held up since the 2011 quake ` This is another emergency repair which has been there now for about six years, five-and-a-half years, probably, and, uh, this is designed to stop this whole wall actually coming out. brick walls cracked and broken or pulled down for safety reasons, pine panels, tacked up, that don't keep out much. There's virtually no insulation behind it. There's gaps in the cladding where rats and mice get into. The family have been living with this for six years. That's little Tasman's whole life. We've had a lot of, uh, exterminators up to help us solve the problem, but because the house cannot be made, um, weatherproof or actually just block the holes, even if we kill one load of rats, the next come in. Um, they fight in the walls; they scream; they rattle. You can hear them urinating down the walls. Yuck, but they have insurance cover, right? We pay every month... to have the assurance that our house will be reinstated and we want to have it reinstated. We are paying Vero for our stress levels. Their case is not a great advertisement. (ELECTRONIC MUSIC) MAN: To Vero, insurance is not about things going wrong; it's about putting things right. Vero isn't responsible for the whole six-year wait. EQC managed the claim for first two years. We were really optimistic that the insurance company had taken over, so we'd start to move with speed, and it took emails to the chief exec of Vero. We've been told we're a priority issue; uh, we've had apologies for falling through the cracks. But the couple have been locked in a battle of the experts. They've had, over the last four years,... I'd say at least 35 people come through the house on different occasions ` geotechnical, asbestos, engineering, project managers, surveyors, builders. The biggest problem ` two-and-a-half years ago, one of those experts hired by Vero tested the foundations with ground-penetrating radar. These cracks sort of extend all the way through the foundation, and this is the part of the house that, apparently, has the most damage to the foundation. Vero made an offer to repair. And they've said the house was around a $250,000 repair. 270, says a Vero spokesman. Roger wasn't so sure, but it took a year and a half to challenge that. It takes us a very long time and effort and stress and money to actually find these experts, pay for their time, book it in, process it, go to the next stage. The result was pretty stark. In the view of Roger's experts, the foundation slab is munted. The whole house needs to be lifted up temporarily so that slab can be replaced. Uh, they said that actually it was about an $860,000 repair. What's meant to happen next is that Vero and Roger and all of their experts get together and try and thrash out a compromise. I mean, it's happened before. I'm told Vero's paid out $5 billion worth of Christchurch earthquake claims and only has about 5% of its claims left unsettled. Obviously, I'm standing outside Vero HQ, waiting to hear what they say, so this is one of those unsettled ones. Time passed as Vero challenged the credentials of Roger and Tara's experts. They got fresh independent advice, which confirmed the first lot. Then Vero wanted another look. We had agreed to that process. We had about 20 people back on-site in November again. Um, they went right through the house; they took levels; they did all sorts of reports. Um, that was as agreed, the process. They then came back, um, and said, 'We're not gonna release the engineering report from that visit, 'and we need, uh, to set you outta the house for five days to take off all the linings, 'pull up all the carpets and basically pull the house apart' and, um, send us outta the house. Now, we've got three young children. We've complied with all their requests in good faith up to this point, and, um, basically tipping us outta the house for five days is just no longer acceptable. Roger's lawyer was on to Vero, demanding a copy of their report about his clients' property under the Privacy act ` a lawful request which Vero had failed to meet until Fair Go got involved, something Vero says it regrets, and here it is ` the first draft of Vero's engineering report on Roger and Tara's place. It basically says that their concrete foundation slab is munted; it needs to be replaced, not repaired. Doesn't sound like there's much of an argument any more, does it, Vero? Except now Vero claims no one can rely on the ground-penetrating radar report. That's the report Vero commissioned and that everyone's experts have been relying upon for two-and-a-half years. We've spoken with the radar experts, who say Vero has never raised any concerns with them about this or any other report they've done. They've found these voids, and the report states that it's due to seismic activity from the earthquake. They're now saying that report's unreliable and can't be trusted. SOFTLY: Oh. So that raises the question in my mind ` can the rest of their experts be trusted? Or is it just the one? Or they just wanna select which ones they don't wanna trust? Vero says a number of delays have been outside its control and maintains its team of experts needs access to the property for up to five days of retesting before they can settle the claim. Roger's heard that before. They've come back and said, 'We need five days,' and, 'We need two days,' but they've already been here three times. Like I say, they've already had, you know, teams and teams of people through. That's a truckload of information they already have. They can have one more day. Six years in a broken house hasn't knocked the fight out of them yet, but every day longer takes a toll. You meet up with your mates and they go, 'Oh, how you going?' And` And the stoic filters just doesn't work some days. You find yourself crying in the middle of a coffee shop, and you think, 'Uh, OK.' (CHUCKLES) 'Not quite the right look.' (CHUCKLES) Mm. 'Bring it back; rein it in.' Six years ` that poor family. That is just appalling. It's ridiculous, and if you're watching and you're a victim of the Christchurch quake, you may be worried that a 'ground-penetrating radar report' might undermine the safety of your home. Well, Vero says, 'Don't be worried.' They tell us any incorrect results will have meant it undertook more work than was required or paid out more than it should have. Right, full stop there, moving along, coming up after the break ` the fastest man in New Zealand gets his runners on. Your time starts now. Go. It's the impossible paper round. (PANTS) If this Kiwi speedster can't do it,... I dunno how they're s'posed to do it. ...what hope is there for these Papamoa twins? I think it's bordering on child slavery. And how's your consumer knowledge? One true, one false. We have the result of our true-false challenge. Welcome back. Paper runs are a good source of coin for cash-strapped kids. Did you have a paper run? No. Milk run? No. 'Milk run'? Did you do any work? (CHUCKLES) Anyway, they encourage entrepreneurship; they give you a good work ethic and... ...good exercise? Yeah, exactly. Yes, but are Kiwi kids being ripped off and exploited? Here's Matt. (ED SHEERAN'S 'SHAPE OF YOU') MATT CHISHOLM: Sure, they're only young, but these Papamoa sisters... Hi, I'm Lucy. Hi, I'm Jemma. ...are industrious. You can't go shopping if you don't have money. The 12-year-old twins have done all sorts to make a buck ` making and selling cupcakes, cleaning cars,... ...gardening and cleaning the windows. And it's always paid off ` We've bought three iPods. until now, with Jemma signing up for a paper round. Some people might be grateful for it. I don't know, but I think it's` I think it's bordering on child slavery. Just before Christmas, Jemma and Lucy's mum, Lisa, answered an ad on Facebook. PMP Limited were looking for keen kids to deliver papers. I thought it would be a good opportunity for them to work for somebody else. A woman from PMP called Lisa back early January, offering a route that paid about $17. And she said, 'Oh, it should take an hour and a half.' Let's confirm this. PMP said the route pays $17.10 and would take one-and-a-half hours. Yes. Here's Lisa's notes from the phone conversation which, amongst other things, clearly says 1.5 hours. Now, this is important, because just like the rest of us, 12-year-olds also want to know how hard they have to work for their money. $17.10 for one-and-a-half hours ` that's $11.40 an hour for a 12-year-old, which sounded sweet. Mum put it to Jemma; she agreed. They had a chat about responsibility,... She said, um, 'If it` Like, you have to do it whether it's, like, 'raining super hard or it's, like, 40 degrees.' ...and a couple of weeks on, Jemma and Mum were into it,... It was probably the hottest day in the whole summer. ...but completing this paper run in an hour and a half was near on impossible. Well, I knew within about 20 minutes that there was no way it was gonna take an hour and a half, so I was kind of hustling Jemma, if you like. 'Come on. Come on. Come on.' I'm pulling the trolley quite fast, and she's sorta running to catch up. The Bay News, though, had to be delivered, so after struggling away for two hours,... Hope it's not like this every week. ...Jemma and Mum called in Lucy. So think of the hardest thing you could possibly think of and then multiply it by seven. The three of them would beaver away for another hour. I kept thinking maybe we've got something wrong. Lisa text Jemma's employer from PMP saying ` READS: 'I can see how you'd get quicker at it 'but struggle to see how one 11-year-old girl could do it in an hour and a half.' No solutions offered up. The reply ` (BRUNO MARS' '24K MAGIC') Week two ` a different plan, Lucy now roped in for good, the twins folding at home first for 45 minutes, and with both of them beating their feet, they improved, delivering those papers in two-and-a-half hours ` still six-and-a-half individual hours for a job that, again, was supposed to take just one and a half. Are the girls unfit? No. Were they lazy? No, not` not in this regard, and there was no point in being lazy, because it's so hot out there; everyone just wanted to get home. To finish in an hour and a half, Jemma would have to deliver 333 papers in 90 minutes. That's 3.7 papers a minute or one paper folded and delivered every 16.2 seconds. Believing it was impossible, Mum had a suggestion. I said, 'Maybe get the` the organiser who booked it to see if she could do it,' and then I said, 'or get an athlete.' Fortunately, a speedster was on hand. Some days you just get lucky ` you really do. Get this ` turns out New Zealand's fastest man, Joseph Miller,... lives right here in beautiful Papamoa. Joseph. How's it going, mate? Good, mate. Matt from Fair Go. How ya doing? Yeah, pretty good, eh. Fantastic. Heard you're up for anything. Got a little challenge for ya. I want you to deliver 55 newspapers in 15 minutes. Give it a crack, eh? See how we go. Great, give you a couple of minutes to strategise, then we'll rip in to it. Sweet as. 55 in 15 ` it's a cracking pace, but if any Kiwi could do it, it's Joseph. MAN: He's someone to watch. In case you missed it, the man came second to Usain Bolt a couple weeks back. All right, your time starts now. Go. Nail this and Joseph could theoretically deliver all the papers in an hour and a half. The fastest man in New Zealand might've started strongly,... Oh my God! ...but he was already eight papers off that supposed one-hour-thirty kids' pace... (PANTS) ...after just 15 minutes. (PANTS) I dunno how they're supposed to do it. How do you think a 12-year-old Joseph Miller would've handled this challenge? I think he might've given one guy, like, 10 newspapers,... (CHUCKLES) ...yeah, maybe a couple of bushes as well. (CHUCKLES) (LAUGHS) As for the 12-year-old twins, they boxed on every Thursday for a month. The best they could do was deliver those papers in 6 hours. That lovely $11.40 hourly rate was in reality just $2.85. If this woman had have told me either it was more than an hour and a half and worked it out at $2.85 an hour, I would have said, 'No, thank you,' or if she said it would take five` five hours, I would have also said, 'No, thank you.' Not surprisingly, Jemma resigned after four weeks, giving two weeks' notice via another text from Mum. READS: Please do not tell her replacement that it takes an hour and a half, because it just doesn't. We worked hard to get PMP's side of the story. Is there any w` reason why he won't talk to me? WOMAN: I j` haven't been given that reason. They didn't respond to any of our communications. We've put you through one hell of a day. (LAUGHS) Why did you want to talk to us about this? (CHUCKLES) I am concerned that there are other children are out there doing this. Fortunately, Jemma and Lucy aren't put off paid employment for good. If we want to not be hobos, yeah. I think you should go in for, um, some commercial space for a cupcake shop. (LAUGHS) Yeah, yeah, it's, uh` it has been suggested before. (BOTH LAUGH) (CHUCKLES) 333 newspapers in 90 minutes ` (EXHALES HEAVILY) if you can do that at home, please send us a photo or video. (LAUGHS) We would love to see it. Absolutely. Hey, and big thanks to Joseph as well for giving it a shot. Keep an eye out for him. He's gonna be a big name. Yeah, he is quick but not quick enough for a paper round in the Bay of Plenty. Right, time to find the answer to this week's true-false challenge. No one wants to look out here and think about sharks, but it's the land-based predators we're concerned about today ` loan sharks, that is. K... MAN: Yes, they can; they can charge whatever they want. WOMAN: Yes, they can, especially in certain places where people are really poor, eh? (CHUCKLES GENTLY) It's horrible. And sadly, that's right, but... Whoa. It's alarming, isn't it? Yeah, you can see why they call them 'loan sharks'. Oh, that's so true. That is the show for tonight, but Hadyn and I will be on Facebook for the next half hour to answer your questions. And, look, the programme is all about you guys at home, so if you got an issue, a concern, please do contact us. Yes, join us on Facebook. You can also email us at... ...or write to us ` That's our show. Until next week, goodnight. Copyright Able 2017