Are You Serious?

Now that’s a question I get quite a bit. Thrown from a distance, and usually from the safety and anonymity of the computer screen. Well, yes actually, we are quite serious. Because ghosts have very little definitive evidence for their actual existence, it might be easy for some to just

Mother in the Mirror

As with most of the items in my decades long collection, I do tend to approach certain items with a somewhat sceptical, even cynical stance sometimes. When the stories seem too good be true and I’m left with so many unanswered questions I have to wonder if there’s either a

Cooped up in Huntly

During a roadtrip one day I stumbled upon this old house down some back streets, that had been converted into a chicken coop. I wanted to get closer to photograph the inside; but a very nasty looking goat was standing guard, giving me the ”evils”.

The Huntly Ghost Bride

There are stories that tell of a mysterious alleged ghost ”bride”, that is witnessed from time to time standing , or wandering along the railway tracks adjacent to the Huntly Cemetery located along State Highway one; about an hour south from Auckland. She has been described as wearing a long,

Radical Social Centre – Wellington

I’ve always loved this old building in Wellington and whenever in the city, always make a point to stop by to have a look and say ”Hi”. Situated at 128 Abel Smith Street on the shoulder of the bypass, is Wellington’s Radical Social Centre. This rundown vintage home is these

Onehunga Historic Building

Haunted Auckland was invited to investigate the various unusual activities allegedly occurring in an iconic Onehunga based establishment, built in 1912.

North Shore ”Hanging man”

Since moving to the north shore of Auckland around 15 years ago, I’ve picked up a few intriguing local stories of possible paranormality and high strangeness around the region. One was told to me back when we first moved here. I noted it, visited the area and took photos to try

Undisclosed Innercity Brothel

Auckland City’s rich, lively and ever changing sex industry has seen many characters and guises through the decades. Parlours would open with great frequency, but never seemed to survive long, but for only a small handful of ‘stayers’ that thrived through the years. The Pink Pussycat Club (run by the

Wharariki Beach – Portal of the dead

Wharariki Beach is a beautiful, but remote, wild and windswept region of coastline on the northwestern tip of the South Island that is considered a sacred place by Maori and believed to be an entranceway or portal between the world of the living and the deceased. A point of land

Haunted by Shadows

These intriguing NZ shadow experiences were sent in by one of our wonderful followers…. I’d like to document An experience, here’s one out of a few in my life,all experienced in the same house. I’m not a person who is easily scared and I’ll always looks for the logic in

Editor's Choice

- The Junction Hotel – Thames – The Haunted History10/06/2017Haunted Locations / Hotels and Businesses / Paranormal New ZealandHaunted History According to hotel staff, a man hanged himself (100+ years ago) in one of the upstairs rooms. Two or three other people have passed away also, while in the hotel. The manager tells us of a psychic friend, who lunches frequently in the hotel, always complains about a spot in the hotel. Down the hallway from the restaurant, there is a door entrance that used to lead to the other bar, There had been a black sheet hung over it to cover it up – the psychic believed that there is bad energy there. The complaints about the restaurant hallway where the black curtain is currently hanging, started when renovation began down that end of the building. People who described themselves as sensitive’s felt there was a man that hanged himself over there. The renovation took place when she started working there 8 years ago. The renovation downstairs consisted of them opening up the whole downstairs area bit that was previously divided into smaller room areas. The saloon was where the current bar is still, as well as the restaurant bit, all stayed the same. The second set of stairs at the back was not originally there, that was added on. There was a cleaner who had worked for the hotel for around 30 years. She was adamant there was a ghost up there. She was the one who found the dead body of a man in Room 6 who had committed suicide. The staff have told us stories of a 12-year-old “ghost girl” that hangs around in the hotel and an “old man spirit”. A young boy; blonde hair and wearing olden day attire is sometimes sighted in the hallway. Strange noises have been heard; running footsteps and things falling where nothing is found. One incident that was mentioned to us – A couple of years back, a young girl dropped one of the owner’s large cut-out wooden names – he got really upset (it was his niece) so they put it back up and left, then as she came back around that same corner – one of the wooden letters flew at her, where it shattered and broke into many pieces. She then realised it was not the little girl who had dropped it in the first place. She actually had this feeling it was flung on purpose the second time as a means to demonstrate “its” anger that the 8-year-old girl had gotten in trouble for dropping that letter previously. She goes on to explain she thought it could have been a child’s presence that did that on purpose. It was the wooden letter G that got thrown- and so could not be repaired but had to be replaced. In the past, staff that had come in early for work, at 7:30 am in the morning, reported hearing children playing, giggling and talking. They looked out the window, went outside and saw nothing, no one around; they got really scared and left the building. Clocks are always breaking (stop working) inside the hotel. Little things always seem to go missing or being misplaced. Staff would then joke amongst each other it was the ghost. The bell in the kitchen has been known to ring at night (obviously when there is no one there). One customer that has stayed at the junction hotel numerous times when he comes to Thames regularly for business claimed that on one night in particular, he woke up and felt a presence with him in the room, this lasted for at least 20 or so minutes. This was Room 14... Read more...
- Howick Historical Village: Solo Overnight sessions – Barbara in the old Howick Courthouse29/03/2018Historic Buildings / InvestigationsThe Howick Courthouse, Howick Historic Village Thursday 29 March/Friday 30 March This story actually starts last Halloween, when the Howick Historic Village invited Haunted Auckland to hold a ghost hunt at the village as part of their Annual Halloween Event. As a result, fellow team member, Lisa, and myself ended up holding short investigations in various dark buildings around the village with five or six victims (sorry budding ghost hunters). Our group was an enthusiastic and surprisingly knowledgeable bunch (in fact a few were serial ‘ghost hunt groupies’ and had been to several of our events). We didn’t seem to have anyone who was too nervous to enjoy sitting in the cobwebby pitch black buildings with various pieces of ghost hunting equipment beeping and/or flashing to alert us of any rises in temperature, EMF levels, air pressure etc. We had a great evening moving from building to building within the village with our equipment and we held many mini investigations which included communication sessions. The ambience of the night was enhanced by one of the ladies phones malfunctioning. It seemly gained a life of its own and randomly would turn itself on and take photos and videos when we least expected it. This was a little creepy but caused much hilarity, as we were pretty sure that Vicky’s phone had not actually been possessed. Our team of rookies managed to debunk several thuds and odd noises that night, including when we heard banging coming from one corner during our investigation of the old Howick Courthouse. It turned out to be the window rattling in the wind and I was proud that the team of newbies did not immediately declare it was paranormal, but instead, after going outside to see if there was anything that may have been banging against the building in the wind it was discovered that one of the windows was actually a little loose and would rattle when the wind blew. There was one thing we could not easily debunk however. During our investigation in the Howick Courthouse, we held an evp session and while everyone was quiet most of us heard a man’s voice say something. It seemed to originate from an empty corner of the room. As we had done earlier with other occurrences, we worked together to try to come up with a rational explanation for what we had heard, but we could not come up with a definite explanation for the voice. Of course it may have been someone on the nearby road outside the building but the village was locked so it was a (admittedly short) distance to where a member of the public may have been standing. Upon hearing the voice a couple of the team were immediately dispatched to see if there was anyone outside or nearby but nothing was found despite them having a good look around. As is standard procedure we then attempted to replicate what we had heard by asking members of the team to stand outside the building and also on the road outside the village and speak but we were unable to replicate shat we had heard. That voice was never fully debunked and piqued my interest in investigating further in that building. As you can imagine then, when the Haunted Auckland team were granted access to the village to hold overnight solo investigations I jumped at the chance to spend the night investigating alone in the Howick Courthouse building! Upon researching the building it appears that The Courthouse was built in 1848 on the corner of Baird and Moore Streets, Howick and was moved to Picton Street in 1910. Besides being a courthouse the building has been used as a library, a school and lastly an engineers office. It was then moved to the Howick Historical Village in 1979 and now stands near the village square. The interior of the building has been set up as the courthouse would have looked originally with the old, wooden floor, brown wooden walls, pew style seating at the back for members of the public who wanted to watch the proceedings, a brown wooden-walled dock on either side of the single room, a court officials table in the center of the room and the judges stand (complete with judges gravel) in the front. There were various historical items displayed around the room including old handcuffs, period clothing, photos ect. Upon arrival at the village I went to make sure the building was as I remembered it. (Sometimes the village will alter how a building is displayed and will change the layout and add extra or remove displays and exhibits or mannequins). …… Although the overall ambience was stark and uncomfortable I was delighted to be able to make my bed up at the back of the room. As I was doing this I moved the wooden pews to make a platform to put my self-inflating mattress and sleeping bag on and saw with some alarm that “something” retreated very quickly into a large crack in the floor. I eyed the crack suspiciously while waiting for whatever it was to show its self again. When it became evident that I was not going to see whatever it was (“Please Don’t Let it be a Mouse!!) any time soon, I continued to set up my bed (in the opposite corner of where I had seen the “something” ), took photos and video of the room to document where I would be sleeping and scanned the room for emf (of which there was nothing of note). I then left an audio recorder, emf meter and a video camera going while I left the building to join the rest of the team for an investigation of Puhinui House and other buildings around the village. Upon my return much later that night (in fact much later than I would have liked), I noted, with relief that the “something in the corner” seemed to be, in fact, a rather large spider and not a mouse, as I had earlier feared. (Ghosts and spiders-who-stay-on-their-side-of-the-room are fine for me. Just don’t show me a rodent.) The one-roomed building actually felt very calm and serene and even after I had turned the lights out to begin my investigation I was not nervous about sleeping there that night. I tried several communication sessions in different areas of the room but apart from a clunk which came from beside me while I was in the front of the room and some unusual emf readings at the back of the room (close to where I would be sleeping) there really was nothing happening. Eventually about 3am I set up an infrared cam and an audio recorder (my trifield meter and EDI data logger had been turned on as soon as I entered the building to retire for the night) to document anything that may have occurred while I was holding my last communication session of the night while I was in my bed. At this stage however, my 11-hour workday followed by the investigations of that night caught up with me, and despite my best intentions of holding a lengthily final communication session from my bed, I fell asleep very quickly. Upon reviewing my video from that session however there does seem to be a light that shows shortly before the video cam turns itself off. When I awoke in the morning and found the video camera off I assumed that the battery had run out but when I went to review several days later I noted with interest that there was still life in the battery and memory on the card so the camera should not have ceased recording until much later. The light came on for a second or two one minute before the camera switched off. I have tried to recreate what I saw in the video (it was actually reflected in my water bottle which was beside my bed) and suspect that it was from my EDI device, which may have been indicating a sudden significant drop in temperature at that time. The device was actually several meters away and not actually visible on camera as I had my cell phone close to the bed and I did not want my phone interfering with the readings my EDI device was logging. Surprisingly, however, upon checking the data the EDI had logged throughout the night there did not seem to be a sudden drop in temperature at that time! I guess I’ll never know for certain what the light was, but would certainly love to spend more time in that building! See the light anomally in this short clip. https://youtu.be/xc-YEeFBZ0I It was indeed a huge privilege to be able to not only investigate Puhinui House and other buildings in the village again, but to also spend the night alone in the historic Howick Courthouse and I must sincerely thank the Howick Historic Village for this amazing opportunity. I’d highly recommend that anyone young or old with a spare few hours go and take a look at this really interesting, authentic and well maintained attraction. ... Read more...

“Pioneers in the field…. Leading the way with Paranormal Research in New Zealand” – Connor Biddle, Paranormal Encounters.

“I have much respect for the level of study Mark and his team have put into the paranormal phenomenon through the years. His work is interesting and very well researched.” – Murray Bott, U.F.O Researcher & NZ’s MUFON representative.

”Refreshing to see solid and innovative investigation work, done with passion and honesty. Haunted Auckland stand out in the crowd and dont fit any typical mould. This is a very good thing”. – Paranormal Review newsletter

Paranormal New Zealand is the home of Haunted Auckland, a Paranormal Investigation and Research group.

Whether you’ve been aware of Mark Wallbank’s research work since the 1980s, subscribed to his popular mid-2000s blog BizarreNZ, followed the Haunted Auckland team since 2010, or just recently discovered us; WELCOME and thanks for joining in the fun, learning, and adventures.

We are a dedicated group of paranormal enthusiasts, all having one thing in common – a passion and drive to find out as much as humanly possible about the mysterious and unknown field that is the Paranormal, as well as documenting New Zealand’s historical buildings and landmarks in their current state.

Paranormal (păr′ə-nôr′məl) adjective.
Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as beyond normal experience or scientific explanation. The term “paranormal” has existed in the English language since at least 1920. The word consists of two parts: “para” and “normal”. The definition implies that the scientific explanation of the world around us is “normal” and anything that is above, beyond, or contrary to that is “para”.

We’re always learning new things, so hope to pass that knowledge on to you all so that you might learn as we do, in this crazy but fascinating world of the paranormal.

Firstly a few things you should know about Haunted Auckland. We’re a small Auckland based team of friendly, dedicated, well seasoned and enthusiastic researchers with differing levels of experience, knowledge, skills and expertise and totaling around 100 years of experience. Our investigators are intelligent, honest, compassionate and possess critically thinking (yet wide open) minds. We’re also very good listeners.

We work closely with Property Managers, local Councils and Historical organisations to help preserve local histories, bring further awareness and raise funds by running public events.

Haunted Auckland has it’s roots deep and strong. Going back to 1984, with a team (Auckland Ghost Hunting Group) formed by H.A founder, Mark Wallbank; making them NZ’s longest running Paranormal field-research entity.

What we aren’t: We aren’t Ghost Busters, Ghost Hunters, Exorcists, Mediums, Clairvoyants or Psychics and we don’t do clearings, blessings or the ridding homes of alleged demons. We don’t do prayers, rituals, or bring in any religious elements to our work. We aren’t mental health experts or sleep disorder professionals, though we do work closely with mental health professionals.

We travel that spooky road, between sceptic and believer. We are happy to sit right in amongst it all and take the research wherever it may lead us.

While we are sceptical and doubtful of certain cases and ideas, we have seen and experienced enough in our time to realise that dedication to the research is definitely a worthwhile cause. Instead of blindly believing (or disbelieving), or just accepting what we are told is true and real, we prefer to seek out the answers ourselves through first-hand, “boots on the ground” investigation. Experimentation, observation and documentation. We don’t have all the answers and we don’t consider ourselves experts.

The team prides itself in being quite a bit different from other paranormal investigation teams out there. Our mindset strays from the popular culture train of thinking with regards to the paranormal, that is already rife with spirit boxes, phone apps and flashy, easily manipulated fad gadgets. Our goal is answers and evidence, not social media or entertainment popularity.

We don’t follow the mainstream, gadget driven mentality. Gadgets marketed to the naïve and gullible, claiming to detect and interact with ghosts.

We don’t however dismiss these gadgets until we have fairly trialed and experimented with them within our own investigations, before deciding whether they are worthy and valid to use within our research, or just more useless toys for the ever growing ‘’junk box’’.

Research time in these locations is valuable and a privilege, so wasting it on pointless flashy boxes that offer no accurate data in return or are vague and open to interpretation (as well as mis-interpretation) is counter-productive and a poorly used opportunity. Thinking outside of the ‘’box’’ confinements of the popular T.V and social media- lead mainstream is something, the team sees as important if the field is to move forward and gain any serious credibility or traction within scientific or academic circles.

The team utilises a combination of old-school thinking and techniques, coupled with a modern way of thinking. Simple and stripped back yet embracing current technology to work though theories and ideas that may find their way into our research. We don’t make claims we can’t back up with evidence or reliable data.

We pride ourselves in keeping it real. No faking evidence or embellishing of facts. If nothing happened, nothing happened.

What we are, is “real world” researchers. Learning by doing. Walking the talk. Substance over fluff. If we don’t know something, we say so.

We don’t charge anything for what we do. The opportunity to investigate a location and hopefully further our research is its own great reward.

We follow the Scientific Method as closely as we are able to; though it’s not always easy to create a fully controlled environment and the fact that true paranormal activity is sporadic and very rare means we don’t always have a lot to go on. Still, we do our best with what we have to work with at the time and go wherever it takes us.

We go to where the stories come from in order to see for ourselves. We talk to the people involved to get their sides to the occurrences.

Our conclusions are never really final and we find multiple return visits yield the best results; so have built up trusting relationships with quite a few locations within the historical communities in this country.

Our clean and respected reputation within historical circles is something the team prides itself on, as it has grown over the last decade and is based on well over 200 investigation sessions within that time.

For a full listing of References & testimonials, please visit our TESTIMONIALS page on this website.

Exploration – Observation – Experimentation – Documentation … Ultimately leading to Interaction, Understanding and Conclusion.

KEEPING IT REAL

Please check out our website and don’t hesitate to make contact if you have any queries or would like to know more about what we do. We’re always happy to talk about spooks!

Through the years the team have investigated:

Auckland

Auckland Civic Theatre
North Head
The Auckland Town Hall
St James theatre
Victoria Theatre
The Howick Historical Village
The Smith & Caugheys building
Kinder House
Lopdell House
The Pumphouse Theatre
The Bluestone Room
Fort Takapuna
Massey Homestead
The Hard To Find Bookshop
Hollywood Cinema
Avondale Town Hall
Spookers
Alberton House
Bell House
Theatreworks
Carrington (Unitec)
The Queens Ferry Tavern
Regent Theatre
Ewelme Cottage
Laishly House
Onehunga Blockhouse
Puhoi Centennial Hall
Kingseat Hospital
Puhinui Homestead
The Kentish Hotel
AUSA Building
Helensville Museum
Waiuku Museum
Lake House Art Centre
Molloy’s Antique Centre
Whatipu Caves
Capitol Theatre
Gibbons Homestead

Wellington

Dixon Street Basement
Inverlochy House

Coromandel

The Junction Hotel
Mount Moehau
Bella Street Pumphouse

Waikato

Hawkes Bay

Central North Island

Chateau Tongariro Hotel

West Coast and Central South Island

Seaview Asylum
Otira Stagecoach Hotel

Canterbury

The Old Shipping Office (Akaroa)

Otago

Cardrona Hotel
Vulcan Hotel (St Bathans)

Dunedin

Seacliff Asylum
Chalet Backpackers
Globe Theatre
Leviathan Hotel
Larnach Castle

United Kingdom

The Drovers Inn – Scotland
Traquair House – Innerleithen
Ancient Ram Inn – Wooton-Under-Edge
30 East Drive – Pontefract
Boleskine House – Scotland
Ballachulish Hotel – Glencoe
Chillingham Castle
The Golden Fleece – York
Bunchrew House – Scotland
Oswald House – Kirkcaldy
Halston Hall – Carlisle
Airth Castle
Dalhousie Castle
Barcaldine Castle – Oban
The Witchery – Edinburgh
Edinburgh Vaults – Scotland
Touchwood House – Scotland
Greyfriars Kirkyard – Scotland
The Hellfire Club – Ireland

Australia

YHA [Katoomba] – Hartley Village [NSW] – Quarantine Station [Manly] – The Russell Hotel [Sydney] – Maitland Gaol [NSW]

Hawaii

Kaniakapupu Palace Ruins – Nuúanu Pali – Manoa – Oahu Cemetery [Oahu]

Norfolk Island

New Gaol – The Crank Mill – Bloody Bridge

Cryptozoological Field Research

YOWIE RESEARCH: Blue Mountains [ Australia] – Kanangra Ranges [Australia] – Blue Mountains Exploration: Research Area – Bullaburra [Australia]

MOEHAU RESEARCH: Coromandel Ranges [New Zealand] – Urerewa Ranges [New Zealand]

LAKE MONSTER RESEARCH: Loch Ness [Scotland]

… as well as many private home visits around Auckland and surrounding towns and extensive investigation internationally.

Some of the services and experience we have on offer:

Research and Investigation of buildings, historical locations and businesses

Photo & video analysis

Photographic enhancements

General paranormal consultation

Historical Research

Conferences / Public speaking

Educational talks & fundraising for historical locations

Media interviews