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You don’t have to believe in ghosts to find fascinating ghost towns and other settlements with dark stories. Hence the popularity of dark tourism around the world.
In New Zealand, old abandoned gold rush cities and mining sites that have suffered death or destruction on a large scale tell important stories about our history. Sad, yes. But most of the time you will find stories of courage, kindness and heartbreaking ambition among those who have lost. And, in many cases, a kind of macabre beauty in the way nature has reclaimed them.
Andrew Gorrie / Stuff
Tangarakau was abandoned almost overnight after the works on the Stratford to Taumaranui railway were completed.
With Halloween and Dia de los Muertos just around the corner, we take a look at some of our spookiest cities.
Tangarākau, ‘Ghost Town’, Taranaki
So forgotten it’s even overlooked by the Forgotten World Highway, this ghost town at the end of the six-kilometer Raekohua side road feels like one of the most abandoned towns in the country.
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Once the second largest city in Taranaki with some 1,200 residents, Tāngarākau (also known as ‘Ghost Town’) was abandoned almost overnight after work on the Stratford to Taumarunui railway was completed.
In its heyday from the 1920s to 1937, the city was home to a school with over 100 pupils and sports fields supporting nine teams (former All Blacks Jack Sullivan and Bob Scott were born and presumably played rugby here).
However, life here was not easy at all. How would you have liked to spend 12 hours a day chopping trees for the train tracks or hammering them with a mallet before retiring to a shack in the middle of nowhere?
CATHERINE GROENESTEIN / Things
The grave site of surveyor Joshua Morgan, who died at 35 after becoming ill while working in the Tangarakau Gorge. Two of his men from the chain walked 50 kilometers to seek help from the nearest doctor, but to no avail.
The only surviving original building is the school, and while there are no shops or restaurants, it is not completely deserted – Bushlands Holiday Park features campsites and cabins in a valley surrounded by native bush.
Unsurprisingly, one of the main selling points of the holiday park is that it is “definitely away from it all.”
If that is what you are looking for and the place does not scare you, it is quite an idyllic refuge. Swim or fish for trout in the river, explore the trails of the Tāngarākau Gorge with its fossilized rock face and the historic train tracks and tunnels, and then relax with a homemade wood-fired pizza.
Seacliff, Dunedin
Once home to the sprawling gothic-style Seacliff Lunatic Asylum (renamed Seacliff Mental Hospital around 1905), this seaside town 17 miles north of central Dunedin is synonymous with suffering for many.
Built in 1884, the castle-like building housed 500 patients and 50 employees. Janet Frame was still a budding author when she was first admitted there in 1945 and diagnosed with incipient schizophrenia. Six weeks later, she was discharged, but was reengaged in 1948 after a second sister drowned.
Alexander Turnbull Library / Supplied
The late Janet Frame wrote about her experiences at Seacliff and other institutions in the autobiography ‘An Angel at My Table’, which was later turned into a film by Jane Campion.
He spent much of the next eight years at Seacliff and Auckland’s Avondale Hospital, receiving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) treatment and narrowly escaping a prefrontal lobotomy after his first book. The lagoon and other stories, was published in 1951 and won New Zealand’s most prestigious literary award.
However, other tragedies in the building were not prevented. A fire that swept through a wooden ward in 1942 resulted in the deaths of 37 of the 39 patients locked inside.
All that remains of the hospital, which closed in 1973, are the foundations and remains of a garden cared for by former patients on the sea side.
It is a beautiful place to walk with views of Blueskin Bay. The nearby beaches of Warrington and Karitāne are also worth a visit. Like the Moeraki Boulders on the way.
Joanne Carroll / Things
Where you lived in Waitua depended on whether you were married with children, married without children, or single.
Waiuta, west coast
One of the most famous ghost towns in a region full of them, this former gold rush historic center was ruined after the mine shaft collapsed in 1951. Considered too expensive to repair, the city’s 600 residents fled , leaving Mother Nature in charge to slowly regain what had been hers.
Strolling past abandoned buildings like the old police station and barber shop, the overgrown “Olympic” pool, and the ruins of the Nevada Battery, where quartz was once crushed to release gold, you might imagine, if your imagination is What life might have been like when the city was home to the richest gold mine in the region.
Supplied
Miners at Waitua’s Blackwater mine, which once produced 13 percent of the country’s gold.
Hike up or down the hill to the Prohibition Mine and Mill and you can stand on what was once New Zealand’s deepest mine shaft – the last 300 of its 879 meters are below sea level.
To get a better idea of what life was like in the past, book a tour with the Friends of Waitua volunteer group or watch the recent documentary Whispers of gold before visiting. By incorporating footage, Friends of Waitua says it provides insight into “the colorful characters, the stories, and the gold that [the town’s] heart beating but left a toxic legacy ”.
If you’re brave, or want to go crazy, book a stay at the former Waitua Lodge hospital.
Wairoa Buried Village
A town buried under hot ash and mud when Mount Tarawera erupted in 1886, Te Wairoa is often described as the New Zealand version of Pompeii.
Walk around the partially excavated site to get an idea of how its Maori and European inhabitants lived before the violent eruption, which also destroyed the nearby Pink and White Terraces, claimed more than 150 lives.
Filled with excavated artifacts, the museum tells stories of courage and heroism alongside those detailing the loss, and a mysterious story of a ghost canoe said to have been several days before the eruption.
Amanda mcgrath
Te Wairoa was once a popular stop for tourists on the way to the Pink and White Terraces.
There is natural beauty to be found amidst the devastation, including Te Wairoa Falls, accessed along the stream and waterfall trails.
If you want to get a better idea of what pink and white terraces would look like, there is an app for that. Take a boat tour of Lake Rotomahana from the nearby Waimangu Volcanic Valley and the app will discover the “8th wonder of the world” hidden under water.
Macetown, Otago
Like a good ghost story, a long hike to a ghost town allows for suspense to build up and the historic trail to this ancient gold rush town tucked away in the Tussockland Highlands near Arrowtown is one of the best.
Following an old horse and cart trail, the Arrow River, the 4WD, hiking, and mountain bike trail includes abandoned cabins and old houses, numerous river crossings, and in spring many bright pink, purple, and yellow lupins.
Rankers / Supplied
Macetown is one of the most intact old gold mining towns in Otago.
First established in the early 1860s after gold was discovered in the river, Macetown disappeared when the gold discovered later in the hills ran out.
One of the best-preserved gold cities in downtown Otago, it is home to a restored cabin, bakery, and the four-story Homeward Bound stamping battery, the only known all-metal stamping battery in the region.
You will also find the remains of an old school and housing sections with original fruit trees and shelter. The interpretation panels tell the story of Jack Glisson, who, although fictional, is based on incidents and stories from real life.
However, to avoid starring in your own horror story, check the weather forecast and trail conditions before you go. The river can become impassable after heavy rains and although it clears under snow and ice in winter. Also, if you are driving, the DOC advises you not to expect assistance from the vehicle if the wheels submerge or bind.
