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The legendary ghost of St. Bathan has seen a lot in its time, but nothing like 2020. “The Rose,” as it is known, lives in the interior of Central Otago, where a beautifully restored heritage town sits next to a lake. emerald.
The small town of about ten permanent residents was once a fortress, of the gold mining variety. When the incessant march for gold swept through Otago in the mid-1800s, the first prospectors found gold in a small place originally called Dunstan Creek.
Brook Sabin / Stuff
The Vulcan Hotel recently reopened.
What started as a tent city, and described as a “pigsty”, soon morphed into a booming city with 13 hotels, a hospital, two banks and many businesses, including women who worked nights.
One of them, known as Rose, worked in Room 1 of the Vulcan Hotel and, according to the story, was brutally murdered.
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Since then, her ghostly presence has become a legend, reportedly only to haunting men. Paranormal investigator Mark Wallbank wrote in this blog, “There have been many reports of lights on and off, doors creaking, temperature drops, ghostly footsteps, ghostly apparitions and eerie shadows seen at the foot of the bed. Moans are heard in the corridors, the kettles boil without turning them on and the doors close by themselves. “
Rose has experienced, in a spiritual sense, the rise and fall of her city, two world wars and even the influenza pandemic of 1918, which caused more than 9,000 deaths in New Zealand.
But nothing, until Covid-19, had seen his house close. The mud brick hotel was built in 1882 and remained in continuous operation until this year, when Covid-19 hit and the sale of a business went bankrupt, leading to its temporary closure. However, the hotel has reopened and is ready for summer hikers.
St Bathans is a small detour from the new Central Otago tourist route, linking Dunedin and Queenstown in a series of quaint mining towns. It’s the driving equivalent of doing the Otago Rail Trail.
While the heritage buildings are full of character and meticulously restored, the main feature of the city is a giant emerald lake.
Brook Sabin / Stuff
St Bathans Blue Lake is a former mining shaft.
In the 1930s, miners had created the deepest mining shaft in the southern hemisphere, but it had begun to invade the city. Therefore, it was abandoned and allowed to slowly fill with water, where the remaining minerals in the ground gave the lake a distinctive emerald color. Combined with the exposed cliffs, it has an almost lunar appearance.
In recent years, the city has gained popularity as a tourist stop, where you can enjoy the heritage buildings along with walks around the lake. It is also popular for boating, kayaking, and rowing.
If you don’t feel like spending the night in Vulcan, at least stop by to eat (it’s the best place to eat in town) and you can spend the night in jail instead.
The St Bathans Police Camp, dating from 1864, has been converted into the St Bathans & Constable’s Cottage Jail, with three bedrooms.
Either way, it is a night you will never forget.
Get there: St Bathans is 30 minutes from Ranfurly, or 50 minutes from Clyde, on St Bathans Loop Road. The new Central Otago tourist route begins in Queenstown or Dunedin. See: centralotagotouringroute.co.nz.
Stay there: Hotel St Bathans or St Bathans Police Camp. See: stbathansnz.co.nz
Brook Sabin / Stuff
Keep an eye out for the Stuff Travel car as we tour New Zealand.
Brook Sabin and Radha Engling travel the length of New Zealand on a Stuff Travel country road trip in a new Hyundai Kona Electric. The vehicle has 449 km of range in the real world on a single charge; for more information see: Hyundai.co.nz/Kona-electric. This story was produced as part of an editorial partnership with Tourism New Zealand. Read more about the content of our association here.
