Hi. thanks for the comments. so, to elaborate a bit more - after we got back from this weekend away we looked in the garden and there were long 6/7/8ft branches all over the place. I was in the garden and my wife was in one of the bedrooms and I said look at the ####### tree, neighbour heard my voice, came bounding over and cheerfully said I've trimmed the tree Dave, you can just throw those branches over and ill get rid of them. I was gobsmacked and just didn't say much at this point, we spoke a couple of hours later "you had no right to do that" etc. He had reached over with a pole saw and taken off about 70-80% of the branches a few days later I tidied it up and gave it more shape and form than it had. we genuinely think that he thought he was doing us a favour and not being malicious (they're a simple bunch to be honest.) at the time he also said he had done it for the previous owner of our house over the years. We dont what the law for this is in NZ and am unsure about taking this path because of the money situation - I'm sure the cost will far outweigh a days work and the cost of a standard tree. we live in the North of NZ where there is no frost but it does get cold (about 8.c) in the middle of the winter - I know thats not cold compared to the motherland but heyho!
Again thanks for all the comments.
