* Tonight ` she wanted to save an endangered species. Four weeks with orangutans, and I'm going to go and help them. I don't want to miss out on that. But paradise felt more like a prison. Why are they in cages? Are orangutans and tourists both being exploited? It was pretty much a zoo, and that's not what I agreed to be part of. Plus, a bizarre open-and-shut case. It's absolutely ridiculous. Hubby is left out in the cold after he put the remote through the wash. It's just a $15 pain in the bum. And Hado goes out on a limb. Have you built these before? No. (BOTH LAUGH) Can a tree house really be built to code? What about your average Auckland metrosexual? Could he make this? He probably thinks he could. (LAUGHS) Copyright Able 2018 Kia ora. Welcome to the show. The great OE has always been a right of passage for adventurous young Kiwis. But more and more are turning their backs on luxury resorts and opting instead for the chance to save endangered species like orangutans. It's called voluntourism. It's virtuous and expensive. But what you pay for is not always what you get. Here's Garth. 'Orang utan' - it means 'people of the forest'. But we're felling those forests and hunting the biggest tree-dwelling mammal on Earth to the brink. The idea of working with orangutans is something that's really near and dear to me. Amanda wants to help save the orangutan, and she thought she'd found a way. This is the most amazing programme in the world ` like, it's four weeks with orangutans who've been rescued ` and I'm gonna go and help them. I don't want to miss out on that. But what she's discovered still troubles her. Those orangutans are in cages, and that's not OK, and people should know about that. And Amanda has expert backing. Every day they spend in a cage or in captivity is one less day they're likely to go back to the wild. The family lifestyle block in North Canterbury is a long way from the Malaysian jungle. Smile. You're on camera. It's teeming with animals with a lot of personality. Inky-dink! Inky the cat, who thinks she's a parrot. She's done this her whole life. Dot the lamb, who thinks she's a baby. Why is the lamb wearing nappies, though? Because she stays in the house, and we don't want her peeing on the floor. And there's Ludo, who knows he's all highlander. He's a big softie, really. Those horns don't look soft. (LAUGHS) Amanda loves animals ` that includes when she plans her travels. I think I've got a pretty good life, so I'd like to help others have a good life too. Which is how Amanda found The Global Work & Travel Company. And it's holidays with a heart ` a package tour with a humanitarian or conservation mission at its core. But caring costs. I paid AU$3110 through the Global Travel Co, and that didn't include flights. That was for four weeks in Malaysia ` meals and shared accommodation and transport, and the chance to do some good. I knew the cost, and I was happy to pay that money for going and helping what I thought I was going to be contributing to. This was what they showed you before you paid? Yeah. It says it's a rehabilitation and rescue centre for orangutans who've been rescued from deforestation, you know, don't have a home any more. They've been rescued from trafficking, things like that, and they're being held at this centre to get them up to good health and then releasing them back to a safer environment. And I was like, 'I wanna be part of that. That's something that I wanna help with.' This is where they sent her ` about four hours north of Kuala Lumpur. Bukit Merah Orang Utan Island Sanctuary. It's not actually on an island ` just across a big lake ` and it didn't look like a rescue centre either. It was pretty much a zoo, and that's not what I agreed to be part of. Tourists can see orangutans up close in large natural enclosures, but not behind the scenes. And when we first saw them, the orangutans were in these cages. And we're like, 'Why are they in cages?' 'Oh, we're waiting for you to release them.' 'But why are we releasing them?' 'Oh, cos it's a fun thing for you guys to do. You can hold their hands 'and walk down and put them in their big enclosures for the day.' I was like, 'OK, cool, I get how that's exciting to hold an orangutan's hand ` 'who wouldn't wanna do that? But why? Like, why are you promoting this? Why are they in these cages?' 'Oh, it's for their safety.' And we're like, 'That's not right.' And it seems the sanctuary is very concerned about privacy backstage. On the very first day, we were told, 'No cameras, no phones. 'You can't take any photos.' And we were like, 'Well, why not?' So they tried to take your cameras off you, at the place? Yep, and our mobile phones, yeah. And you just said, 'No way'? Yeah, pretty much. Amanda nursed her doubts as she was put to work, preparing food for the orangutans ` rice for dinner every night and a daytime drink. It was blended watermelon, then diluted with a sugar-water combination in a bottle for their lunch. Why are we giving wild animals sugar water? There were more surprises at lockup. Amanda couldn't see any water supply in the cages. So that's 14 hours that they're spending in a cage. That's more than half their life. That's not right to me. Amanda learned some orangutans had been there 14 years. Two and a half weeks was all she could handle. She quit and left. People naively are sold products which are simply commercial exploitation of animals as conservational welfare. Leif Cocks has spent three decades working with orangutans, trying to save them and their habitat. He says the sanctuary is one of many places that aren't helping. He says he was invited to Bukit Merah once before, but they wouldn't take his advice. Fair Go got hold of the director of Bukit Merah. He doesn't deny any of the treatment Amanda reported, not even the cages with no water where they spend more than half their lives. Dr Sabapathy says the sanctuary has been misrepresented. He says Bukit Merah has never claimed to be a temporary holding facility and confirms some orangutans have been there for over a decade. None of this was what Amanda had signed up for, but her attempts to alert The Global Work & Travel Company were proving fruitless. So I emailed again. I believe it was in March. Didn't get a response. April ` didn't get a response. Global finally responded to Amanda, claiming it had been misled about the project too. It offered her $100 credit on future travel to say sorry for everything. That had taken four months, but it was only four days after Fair Go called that Global Work & Travel Co took a fresh look. I've been sort of shaking the branches. Did much fall out? Yeah, yeah. READS: 'Out of an abundance of caution, we have ceased doing business with this provider.' Right. OK. READS: 'I've instructed our team to process a full refund for Ms Rowland.' Awesome! Oh, and you're welcome to keep the $100 travel credit for future use too. (LAUGHS) Awesome! Oh my God. I was not expecting that! READS: 'When it comes to their internal processes, frankly, I expect our people to do better `' that's what this guy is saying. READS: 'I'm embarrassed it has taken this long to address her concerns. 'It's been a learning experience. Thanks very much.' Oh. Joy for Amanda... Yay! ...and for Kaylee the dog. I'm over the moon. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you guys taking on the case and helping. (CHUCKLES) No Fair Go for the orangutans, though. They need all the help they can get. Ooh, I'm feeling a bit mixed. Yes. I'm feeling a lot mixed, actually. Like, great we got the refund back. But what is going on over there? That is no good. Now, our orangutan expert has some good advice. There are plenty of organisations working to keep animals alive in the wild. They do need your support, and if you do a bit of homework, you'll be able to identify the good and bad. Great advice. Thank you very much. Right, time for our final round of our true/false challenge. Yes. If you've been following the series, you will know... And there has to be at least 180 days between rent increases. This is a really tricky series. You have struggled. I have struggled. But last question, so you have time to salvage pride. OK. (RELAXED MUSIC) It's our fifth and final true/false question. Who will get it right, and will anyone walk away with the $20 big money prize? If you're clumsy and break something in a store, you're legally obligated to pay for it. True or false? False. Oh, it depends on the company. Yeah. Probably true. I'm gonna go with false. I'm gonna go true. You know this one? Yep, I think it's true. True. False. Ooh, disagreement. OK. (GIGGLES) I don't know! I've had a bit of advice on this one, cos I'm notoriously clumsy. But I say ` you break it, you pay for it. At least, that's what I tell the kids. OK, you've gotta wait a little bit longer, and you'll find out the answer. But coming up after the break ` time-saving gadgets don't always make life hassle-free. It's absolutely ridiculous. What happens when push-button technology goes bad... ...and hubby gets left out in the cold? Just a $15 pain in the bum. And ` it's the stuff of childhood dreams. It looks cool. How do you build a tree house to code? Only your kids can play in it. It's a bit of a problem, cos we're right in the street. Welcome back. Push-button devices have changed the way we live. I've got a fun fact for you. Great. Brace yourself, New Zealand. Did you know ` 55 years ago, the world was introduced to the very first push-button phone. Remember the old... (IMITATES ROTARY PHONE DIALLING) Am I a bit old to remember that still? No, no. I remember those as well. Good, good. Thanks for the little trip down memory lane. However, this next story has nothing to do with push-button phones. Oh, oopsie. But it does highlight how time-saving gadgets can go bad. Here's Gill. # Baby, if you give it to me, I'll give it to you. I know what you want. Cafes, shops, online stores ` they're all competing for our hard-earned cash. Can I please have a flat white? 'Course you can. It's just $5. Thank you. I'd like to buy this candle, please. But what if they take the money, then decide to give it back? Actually, no. No, we won't sell this today. Hi. Where's my coffee? Sorry. We're not gonna serve you. Why not? We're just not. Sorry. Here you go. It sounds crazy, but Rebecca's had exactly that experience. It's absolutely ridiculous, yup. Her story begins with a gate. Drive up, click the remote, drive in. It was great. Loved it. Did exactly what we wanted it to do. Rebecca and her husband are both busy ` two schedules. But with a remote for each car, no problem. It was just the easiest option. All good until husband Phil got a little over-enthusiastic with the weekly wash, forgetting about his remote. Oh, (CHUCKLES) a little bit silly. But it's one of those things where you put it in your jeans pocket, and you throw your jeans in the washing machine, and... there it is. (CHUCKLES) You've got one remote, so it's not the end of the world. Not the end of the world, but close to it. (LAUGHS) It's really inconvenient. It is really` And the whole purpose of the gate is convenience. Because of the dogs, they have to keep it closed. So now only one can drive in; the other has to stay outside. It's just a $15 pain in the bum. So Rebecca set about ordering a replacement ` well, three, to be safe. We paid everything upfront, expecting that was it ` we would get the remote. So, this is $15, but you ordered three of them for $45, and then $5 shipping, roughly. Yup, yup. OK. So they'd have got $50.40 out of you. Yup. An email confirmed she'd paid. Then a second email... Saying, 'Oh, we only sell to people who have our product.' And so I responded. And then heard nothing... until I got an email back saying it had been cancelled and to contact the administration. She tried to buy it again. No notice of cancellation that time ` just money back in the account. And we thought, 'Well, maybe it's a security thing.' Wanting an explanation, she turned to their Trade Me site, but after asking one question, she was blacklisted. I've done lots of Trade Me stuff, and I've never been blacklisted. She was also blocked from the website. There's persona non grata, so I have absolutely no way of contacting them. The site gives no phone number, no names or address. It was impossible to make contact to sort it out. But... We've done a little bit of research, and I think we've found a phone number. Oh, nice. Oh, that's good. (CHUCKLES) Shall we ring it? Yeah, sure, yeah. OK. AUTOMATED VOICE: The number you have called is not currently active or is invalid. (CHUCKLES) Please check the number and dial again. Sorry to get your hopes up. (LAUGHS) No. It looked like they were stuck with one remote between them. So we persevered and finally found a number. Take two. I'm actually a little nervous (LAUGHS) for some reason. I'm sure it will be fine. I'm hopeful. 'We got through. There were excuses.' 'But then, the clincher.' The gate was originally bought by Rebecca's dad, so he had to buy the remote. In a follow-up, the company did agree no abusive emails had been sent. It really was all about security. They added... Rebecca's just happy to bring the matter to a close. At least I get my remote, yeah. That's great. Thank you. Thank you. Great result, but that is the most unusual customer service I've ever seen. Well, hey, we got there in the end. Yes. Coming up after the break ` we go out on a limb to save the humble tree house. CHILDREN: Hi! I want to live in it forever. Hado mans up and builds the tree house of his dreams. What about your average Auckland metrosexual? Could he make this? He probably thinks he could. (LAUGHS) Plus, we reveal the answer to the final round of our true/false challenge. If you're clumsy and break something in a store, you're legally obligated to pay for it. * Welcome back. 'It's PC and bureaucracy gone mad!' That was your reaction to last week's tree house story. The Dunedin City Council ordered the Oke family to give their backyard hidey-hole the chop because it didn't meet code. Well, that got the Okes really upset. The battle lines were drawn, and Anna got caught in the crossfire. Three, two, one. (YELLS) It was the ultimate battle. Three boisterous boys who just want to have fun up against the bureaucracy of the Dunedin City Council. The story quickly went around the country. It's got to go. The Dunedin City Council's decided to remove a family-built tree house. But almost everyone thought, 'This is PC gone mad.' It was incredible. I was so surprised by the amount of feedback that I've had from people up and down the country. It was a privacy complaint from the neighbour that saw the council leap into action, demanding the whole structure come down. He looked at it. He said that it wasn't compliant but didn't really state why it wasn't compliant. The council wouldn't budge. The kids were grounded. Then some help. The local Rotary Club offered to rebuild a new tree house, built to code, by volunteers. My children will be able to play in their own backyard and enjoy themselves. I'm really looking forward to this just being resolved. Rotary ` great job. Dunedin City Council ` not great job. All councils need to really just get a grip of yourselves and think about discretion and common sense. And was the law really designed for tree houses? No, it was not. Can you carry on? I'm upset. It did get us thinking ` how do you actually build a tree house to code? Well, it's time for me to unleash my inner child, sharpen my carpentry pencil... and get a builder in. (HAPPY MUSIC) (SAW WHIRRS) Hello, team. Today we're gonna make a tree house. You're gonna need a couple of things, so please note down the following. You're gonna need a tree, some nails, wood, a hammer, a copy of the Building Code, a list of the building consent rules and exemptions, a builder or a draughtsman to interpret all of those things, a lawyer to fight the council when they try and pull it down, a publicist to handle media requests, and a relationship counsellor when you tell your wife/husband/partner how much you've spent. Good luck (!) Only one problem for me ` I don't have a tree,... ...but my berm does. Which begs the question ` can I build a tree house on my berm? At the time of filming, the council weren't keen on coming out for a look, and there's nothing on their website about tree houses, so,... because I am the self-appointed property manager of my berm ` well, I mow the lawns ` and council has been fine with an existing structure I've had there five years, I've given myself the go-ahead. And I've done what most modern dads do ` I've got some blokes in. Have you built these before? No. (BOTH LAUGH) We're building a house of sorts, so do we need a building consent? Uh, there's a few things we need to tick off first. One being height. For any playground equipment to be exempt from a building consent, it must be under 3m high and... ...only your kids and yourself can play in it. So you have to police it. That's a bit of a problem, because we're right in the street, but I've got a solution for that. Have ya? Electric fence. (BOTH CHUCKLE) Because we had professionals in, they had the confidence to design as they built. I reckon if we cut one about 2m. Pretty cool, eh? My kids weren't surprised we had help. See, Dad's not actually making it; Dad's got some dudes to make it. Because you know Dad's no good at that stuff, eh? Yeah. You did build a shed with a little help. I did build a shed with a little help. Don't tell the council about that one either. A measure here, and cut there, and soon we had a frame and a floor. It's looking pretty high. The Building Code says any structure over 1m high needs railings 90cm high, and because any tree house under 1m is pretty lame, we would need rails. That's why we're going to cut some of these windows in here. Oh yeah. Otherwise they won't be able to see anything. No, that would be like prison. Yeah, we'd put them in a cardboard box. (LAUGHS) We were also really careful about not putting nails or screws into the tree. You don't want to damage it, especially if it's not yours. Mark Ford? Hey, Hadyn. How are you? Councils are largely complaint-based, so the key to a good tree house is having great neighbours. Looks nice. Share with them what you are doing and be prepared to compromise. It will save you a lot of hassle in the long run. My kids will be excited. Well, I'm not sure your kids can go in it. Is that right? Do we need to move into your house or something? CHUCKLES: You do, actually. (CHUCKLES) OK. We needed to compromise on our windows. We cut out these three little wee peep holes and then realised that the kids could possibly use it as a climbing device and then fall over the top. We came up with the chicken-wire solution. It looks cool. Could an average man, could he build a tree house to code? Yep, for sure. What about your average Auckland metrosexual? Could he make this? He probably thinks he could. (BOTH LAUGH) The final problem to escape a building consent is the tree house has to be for our household only. So I've out a sign up advising people if they use it, they may put my consent exemption at risk. They can, though, come to the door and sign up to be part of the Jones household. (WARBLES) ALL: Hi! I want to... live in it forever. (HAPPY MUSIC CONTINUES) So, since we filmed that, the Council have been along for a bit of an unofficial look. And they said, look, Hadyn ` good tree house, built to code, fit to measure, well done, but it's in the wrong place. You can't build a tree house on a berm! No. I thought you might've been pushing your luck there, to be honest. Incidentally, the Dunedin City Council is going to put out a guide on how to build a code-compliant tree house on your own property. I don't agree with you. Right, time to reveal the answer to the fifth and final true-or-false question. That's our final question. Oh, I'd say that's true. Congratulations. (LAUGHS) Thank you. Well done. Thank you. The key word with this question is 'clumsy'. But wait ` there's more! Christchurch didn't produce just one winner. You said true. Yeah, which was right. So guess what? You get $20! (LAUGHTER) Thank you so much! Congratulations! (LAUGHS) Thank you! What do ya know? Nice work, you. What do I win? You win nothing. Well done, Christchurch. Most success we've ever had in a true/false quiz. Good job. Yes. Now a quick reminder before we go ` there is a major review underway on insurance law. If you want to have your say, go to this website... Search for 'insurance contract law review'. Submissions close this Friday ` Friday the 13th. If you think it sounds a bit dry and it doesn't concern you, you are sadly mistaken. Accidental non-disclosure has led to many claims being denied. We'll have an update on that for you in a couple of weeks. So, that's the show, but we're always here to help. Our programme is all about you, so if you've got a wrong you want made right or you feel like you're not getting a fair go, please drop us a line. Yes. We're on Facebook, or you can email us ` fairgo@tvnz.co.nz. Or write to us... Thank you for watching. I'm off to do a little bit of work on my berm. Until next week,... BOTH: ...po marie.