Queenstown man Glenn Raymond is embroiled in a battle with council over a treehouse he built on and island in Lake Wakatipu.

A Queenstown man has obtained a licence for a treehouse he's building on a Lake Wakatipu island and claims it's now an official maimai, a shelter used for hunting or bird-watching.

Glenn Raymond was forced to come up with a solution to make his "secret" treehouse in Frankton Arm legal after he says Land Information New Zealand (Linz) decided it was an "unpermitted structure on Crown land".

"It's going back to the days before Playstations. It's just a bit of good old Kiwi fun," Raymond said. "It will all blend in. It's not like I'm going to paint it purple or anything."

RHYS CHAMBERLAIN/FAIRFAX NZ Queenstown man Glenn Raymond claims his treehouse on an island in Lake Wakatipu is now an official maimai.

It was only after he arrived to find a note from Queenstown Lakes harbourmaster Marty Black telling him it needed consent, that Raymond decided to make it official by paying the $93 maimai tag.

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Over the past few days, Raymond studied the rules and regulations thoroughly and believed if he had his tag attached to the treehouse after 10am on Sunday, it would be a legal maimai.

RHYS CHAMBERLAIN/FAIRFAX NZ The treehouse Queenstown man Glenn Raymond is building on an island in Lake Wakatipu.

"I've done my research and there's three different types of buildings you can do. There's whitebait stand, eel trap or maimai and it fits in with the 10 square metres and it's 10 metres from the water, there's not another stand within 90m so it well and truly fits within the law."

However, Raymond said the only ducks he would be shooting was with a camera. He might do a bit of fishing too.

The glazier decided to build the treehouse after he saw the island from the roof of the nearby Hilton hotel while working there and felt it would be the perfect spot for he and his two young children to relax.

RHYS CHAMBERLAIN/FAIRFAX NZ Queenstown man Glenn Raymond, with dog Eva, in the treehouse he built on an island in Lake Wakatipu.

After clearing a path through the scrub, Raymond started construction on the treehouse using left-over wooden pallets and about $1000 of his own money. He hoped to have the roof on by winter and for it to be fully lockable when complete.

"It's keeping me out of trouble. I'm not away doing stupid things, out doing skids or whatever.

"People are entitled to be here.

RHYS CHAMBERLAIN/STUFF Part of the Frankton Arm in Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown where Glenn Raymond's treehouse "maimai'' is.

"I've got my licence so happy days."

Since locals had got wind of the venture, Raymond had had a stream of visitors stopping by to view his treehouse, a place he calls idyllic and peaceful.

Black called the maimai claim "farcical".

"How could it be a maimai when you can't shoot there?"

The area near the Kawarau Bridge was busy and the Queenstown Lakes District Council did not want to encourage use of that area of water for recreation, Black said.

"It's just stupid."

Fish and Game Otago operations manager Ian Hadland said anybody could obtain a licence and tag an area of public ground for hunting provided they had the permission of the land owner.

In this case, it was Crown land and people usually did not have to apply to tag it, he said.

"In other places people are able to tag legitimately. Nobody notifies Linz and they probably wouldn't want that work load."

Fish and Game issued licences to anyone who wanted to tag but was not responsible for checking where the tag was going.

Hadland had not heard of tagging an area in Lake Wakatipu but it was done frequently in places like Lake Dunstan.

A Linz spokesman said the hut was "an illegal structure" and there were health and safety issues with these types of buildings put up without permission.