New Zealand Ghosts & Other Haunts

I promised this story in another thread, so here it is.

About sisteen years ago hubby and I lived in Waiouru. We lived in an old railway house and my husband ran one of the many garage/workshops in the area.

The house we lived in always felt nice and had comfortable homely feel to it. the people who lived there before us had no problems as far as we know. Although we never saw anything there we heard things and really odd things would happen. It started off quite small like a picture falling of the wall at night with a big clatter. But when we went to see what had happened we discovered that the picture had somehow fallen off the wall and had travelled right across the room (at least 10 meters).

Then hubby rang me at work one morning and asked if I had been home and played a trick on him. It turned out that he had been working all night (often happened - ice on the Dessert Road means busy time for the local towie!) and as I had a 7am start I had left for work before he had got home. He was really tired and sat down in the lounge, took his work boots off and put them on the coffee table (yea you can tell I wasn't home!!!!). He then immediately fell asleep still sitting on the chair in the lounge. When he awoke the whole room including the chair he had been on was re-arranged!!!!! The furniture was all moved to different places and his boots were in the hallway. He rang and accused me, but I had nothing to do with it.

These were the "olden days" and we had a waterbed which we were refilling one day when my husband was called out to tow a car in off the main road. He came and told me that the bed was filling but that he didn't expect to be long and for me to keep an eye on the bed so it didn't overflow. I checked the bed and then went to do something else in the kitchen thinking that I would go back and check ita again after a few minutes. Before I could go back I heard my husband walk in the front door and into the bedroom. I called out to him that I had checked it and that I was surprised that he had been so quick. He replied "OK" and I could clearly hear him doing things in the bedroom. After maybe ten minutes I went into the bedroom to speak to him and discovered the bedroom empty and the bed overflowing all over the floor. I was furious with husband for not watching more closely and went to find him. It turned out he had not been home at all and was still at work. I have no idea what I was talking to or what it was actually doing in the bedroom!!!!

After these things we were suspicious that we might have a ghost but had decided that there could be logical explanations to the strange goings on so were trying to not jump to conclusions. (Also having grown up in a haunted house which had poltergiest activity these things were very mild!) However the next thing that happened defied any logical explanation. I hope I explain it properly so you can understand just impossible this would be.

One night husband finishes work, locks up his tool box up which was in his workshop, then locks the workshop up and drives his tow-truck home. There are no other keys to his tool-box and one other person has keys to his workshop (staff member). Hubby has all his keys on one key ring and its a big keyring with lots on it ie house (back and front), tow-truck, 2 sets of car keys, work keys, various padlock keys and tool box keys. He was in the habit of each night putting the keys on top of the gas heater and it would make a very loud and distiencive noise when you picked them up or put them down there.

I should point out that his workshop was also very haunted and I (and others at the same time) heard people run past wearing jandels when there was noone there at all. Different people also were tapped on the shoulder while in the office there. I once walked in and saw a man in overalls working upstairs. I asked my husband who he was but when we checked there was no-one upstairs.

Anyway on this particular night hubby locked up and came home and put his keys in the usual place. Next morning hubby gets up and goes to head off for work. The keys are not there. We turn the place upside down looking for them but they are no-where to be found. Finally after about an hour hubby decides he is going to have to go to work anyway (without the tow truck). He walks to work and gets the other person with keys to open the workshop up. He breaks into his toolbox and there INSIDE THE TOOLBOX are they keys that had been at home the night before!!!!! There was no way he could have absent-mindedly locked them in there because he used the keys to lock up, drive the tow truck home and unlock the front door but we didn't hear a thing!

Well that Waiouru in a nutshell. I hope I've explained it clearly enough. If I haven't just ask and I'll try to make it make more sense.

Clear and weird to me Kiwi lol

Wow - do you think you find haunted places or do you think ghosts follow you around?

And what does hubby think of all these ghosties in your lives?

Seems that you are a bit of a ghost magnet. Strange but some people are.

LOL

Its funny you mention that cause I've wondered that myself. The thing is that every house my sister lives in is haunted and probably half the ones that my parents have lived in. So it might be a family thing?

I don't think the ghosts follow me around, they seem to be attached to the houses we move to.

We actually lived in four different houses in Waiouru but only that one was haunted. Once we moved back to Auckland the house we had lived in with no problems for many years prior to going to Waiouru became haunted when we moved back into it. Then we bought a house which was fine (no ghosts there). After about three years there we moved into another haunted house and had lots of weird experiences (I'll make a post about that one soon). We lived there for about seven years before moving to our present home. While I would never call this one haunted I do think we have at least the occassional "visitor" and possibly one very shy and quiet resident ghost. He is so quiet I really am not sure if he is here all the time.

Hubby doesn't mind although he sees more than me ie forms walking through ect.

Lucky hubby. Does he have any sensitive abilities himself?

Apart from seeing ghosts? No not really, although he does creepy feelings in some places.

I know this is an old thread BUT...
I used to be a soldier in the great NZ Army not so long ago. I spent my time in Waiouru training for basic and overseas deployments etc.
There have been many stories over the years there. Many i dismissed until two events happened whilst i spent my time in Waiouru.
One was where the old hospital used to stand. Its on the road to the rifle ranges and confidence course. The only thing remaining are some of the foundations. Theres a story of when the hospital used to be active odd occurances would happen. People would be operated on and the doctor would ask for equipment to the nurse (who happened to be across the other side of the room) and it would be handed to him. But noone was there. Patients getting checked on in the middle of the night by a nurse they thought had just started at the hospital but didnt actually exist. Theres heaps and from different people...funny thing it all involves this nurse of the same description. When the hospital got knocked down things settled down of course but then a couple years later screams could be heard coming from the area.
My old platoon sgt told me a story one night that was backed up by the MP boss on a seperate night.
Screams were heard in that direction. Soldiers were sent to investigate thinking someone was injured or getting raped etc. In total 25 soldiers were sent. Nothing was found. They did a ground sweep from the training barracks to the entry point of the rifle range. When they got to the gates they heard mores screams but behind them, behind the pumping station. More ground sweeps, nothing found. These just werent sreams bTW it was discribed as in pain help me help me now screams. They called out got search lights. There was even a helicopter on stand by. Nothing was found. Screams are still heard to this day every so often. Now i thought what a crock of s**t...until we were about 2 months into our 3 month basic training and we were on a night shoot at the pistol range. We were having a break at about 1130pm and ill never forget it. We all heard this scream, our platoon sgt looked at me i went really? And he told everyone the story he told me. Everyone laughed. We were marching back to the armoury past this spot at about 2 am and just before we got to the site of the old hospital a massively loud scream. I tell you what ive never seen so many grown men run like scared little kids. There was nothing where the scream came from. UNREAL to say the least. It came from the middle of the empty paddock which was illuminated from the moonlight, you coudl see plan as day. Blew me away. I started to run as a first thought but myself and the sgt hung back and kept walking. We stayed watching out of couriosity for about 5 mins but could see nothing and no more screams. I never heard it again but over my ten years in the army theres still activity there.
The other one was a guy in another platoon next door. I cant remember the name of the barracks but we were in melame barracks and the barracks next door had an incident years ago (remembering these barracks were there in the fifties) where a young recruit and his mate were cleaning their rifles. A rifle went off and shot one of the mates in the head. Unsure if it was intentional or accidently but to this day that barracks IS haunted. The guy who it affected in my basic was a fit, young together guy who was going to become a mechanic. He was heading towards being the top recruit for our year. One night, got up went to have a whizz (which is down an adjoining corridor to another barracks) in the urinal. There are double swinging doors which are LOUD as and wakes alot of people up but he went in, was at the urinal and the door went, he didnt look cos he was concentrating he reckoned but he said hows it going. No reply. He quickly looked up and though o he must have gone to one of the toilets which are lined up behind where he was and about 8 in length with partitions and red gloss painted doors. He finished up, and walked down the toilets to see who it was. No one there. He walked back along to see if he went in one behind where he was. No one at all. So he turned around abit puzzled cos he was sure the door went when he was at the urinal. He went backtowards the exit door the let out an almighty scream which woke everyone up. Apparantly, in one of the doors he saw a reflection, a very vivid one of a young man, with half a head looking at him. At this stage he didnt know of the incident in that barracks. What he saw shocked him so much he needed counciling and he eventually left the army before finishing basic. He never spent another night in that barracks. i remember seeing him the next day. He looked like a scared little kid. Thats when we got told.
So im thinking that ones true lol.

Theres also the old theatre. They stored the bodies of the victims from the train disaster at ohakune there. Odd noises and laughing comes from there sometimes. Not a place to go at night and they hardly use it now as things have happened there. Unsure what as not many people talk about it. The chaplin has tried to bless it but when he did 2 lights fell from the ceiling very close to them. They left but unsure how true that is. The chaplin was posted to Linton when i was there and i spoke to him about it but he didnt want to speak to me about that night. Quote "I dont wish to speak about the events in that theatre that day" And that was it.
Theres a couple more but not as cool as these three.

That train crash would have been Tangiwhai 1954?

Yes, I too had heard that the building that the Tangiwai disaster bodies were held in was haunted by some of those unfortunate people. Basically the same story as yours.

I had friends who worked at the War Museum and it seems that that was also haunted. Then one of the soldiers who worked there was killed in a road accident and there were apparently a couple of sighting of him at the musuem as well!

I didn't like the feel of Waiouru (that whole central plateau actually) and I don't know if it is a coincidence that alot of people I knew there are now dead!

Great stories!!

Yeah the museum is haunted. Its an eerie place when you walk into the main display room by yourself.
Prob the fact thats it just history you know?
There was a soldier killed outside the museum and i think his medals are in the museum or seomthing along those lines. My mates built it back in the day and some odd stuff used to happen. Power drills etc laying on the ground plugged in but not being used used to operate by themselfs etc.
If you speak to the management there they have video of "something" walking around the show.
The desert road is also haunted by phantom hitchhikers and the waiouru basin (if you head north past waiouru and turn right before you hit the hill) theres a road to a dam. Called mopungu? dam? It was dammed up and a town exists at the bottom of said lake.
That area has activity too and not far from there, there is an area of anomilies, its even marked on most maps. Some very very odd occurrances happen there but i think its more attributed to burmuda triangle type stuff than ghosts. Ill see if i cant find my old military maps of the area and post it up.
Stuff used to go haywire and vehicles just die. You feel weird etc.

How spooky! I love these stories! Please do post a map that would be great! Friends of mine and I occasionally go out and do some investigations and it would be great to drive by perhaps on the way down to Wellington soon.

Kiwilady that is weird, but i wouldnt dicount completely the possibility of physicalpranksters/troublemakers/stalkers ..

.. after all keys can be copied and cut from some time prior to things and a stalker had the opportunity in a lot of those instances, ie when people werew asleep, out of sight, away etc

Hope it's not a stalker - Way rather have ghosts cos stalkers are proper scary

I guess it is a possibility but in a small town like Wiaouru you don't actually have to stalk someone. All you do is turn around twice and the person you were thinking of is there!! You can't do much without the rest of the folks knowing where you are and what you are doing.

Honestly, I was sitting in a restaurant on my birthday one year and the restaurant phone rang. (This was before cellphones) It was my sister ringing me from Auckland to wish me a happy birthday! She had rung me at home and got no reply, so rang me at work. My work collegues on realising it was my sister scouted the main road and soon spotted my car and told my sis the phone number to ring me at the restaurant! A nice surprise but slightly bewildering It made me realise that there is nowhere to hide in a small town.

that is local LOL