Private Residence, North Shore – Auckland

Haunted Auckland were called to look into mysterious on-going activity in the beautiful, but under renovation, North Shore bungalow. We have omitted any names, location specifics and personal details in order to maintain the privacy of our client.

Investigators on the night – Mark and Barbara

Weather Conditions on the night – Fine and cool

Luna Cycle – First Quarter

History

The original house was built in 1936 and has been extensively renovated and modernised inside. The land it sits on is actually an old tennis court, which was originally owned by the family of three women that lived next door.

The original owner was a boat builder, so had fantastic wood working skills, which was evident within the home. The original house was very small and has pretty much doubled in size during its 20 years of renovation.

A garage has been added as a third level to the home. The outside areas have been extensively landscaped over a long period of time. There was only one other owner before the present owners.

The current owners purchased the home 20 or so years ago from the son of the man that had actually built the home back in 1936.

Current status

An extra lounge/sitting room and a garage with internal access had been added to the front. The back of the house had been remodelled to make a bedroom larger, add a bathroom, a laundry and extend the kitchen/dining/living room.

There are three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large laundry, lounge, and a large open planned dining/kitchen/family type room and garage downstairs . Also a bedroom upstairs. The outside areas have been landscaped.

Over the years the owners have added a pool, removed the shed and (about 3 months prior to our visit) removed the asphalt outside the master bedroom window, which they grassed and landscaped. The home was tenanted out for a few years before the new owners decided to move in themselves.

Barbara – Of particular interest to me was the newly worked area right outside the master bedroom.

Mark – The home was in obvious stages of reconstruction. Floor boards were uncovered, revealing the joins where the home extensions have been connected to the original building. Walls were un-papered and plastered, but it was clear to see that when this ongoing ‘work in progress’ was eventually completed it will be a stunning piece of North Shore real estate.

Alleged activity

Dwarven-MinerOver many years various people (children and adults) who have lived in the house have claimed to have seen a “dwarf”.

Dirty, dressed in miners working clothes and helmet, carrying a pick axe, seen in the bedrooms and in the hallway by the stairs.

The young daughter continually reported “Mummy, Mummy there’s a dwarf at the end of my bed!”

Several people have seen a ‘miner’ dwarf in the front bedroom and by the stairs.

He has been described as looking like ‘he belonged in a fairy tale’.

The woman’s daughter was the first person to speak of the dwarf and apparently it would stand in her room at night when she was a young child.

The owner had called a group of mediums in and they too commented about a dwarf in the house, without knowing of it.

One incident was when the daughter (5 years old at the time) ran to a nanny that worked there claiming there was ‘something on her bed’. When the nanny went to look, she saw an ‘imprint’ on the bed which was ‘moving’.

The Nanny also reported seeing the dwarf for herself on another date as she came out of the bathroom. This time standing at the base of the stairs.

Since then various people have reported seeing him over the years.

It is not known if the dwarf is actually a dwarf, or perhaps just a short person.

One theory is that, because the home was raised a foot higher during its rebuild, the dwarf could in fact be a normal sized person standing on the ground below, but the floor boards are now at his knees, giving the impression of a dwarf.

Our theory on this, for now, is that maybe the land was being mined at one point in time. For what , we do not know. This was a miner that died on the scene, but is still seen today as a residual based haunting. Non intelligent and non- responsive or conscious. More a visual recording of a moment captured long ago.

– The owner told us of electrical appliances (beaters, vacuum cleaners, radio) which have turned themselves on and off for various family members over the years.

– There had also been times when the family returned home to find windows open that had been closed when the family had left the house.

– Some sort of energy often visits the lady of the house, who gets touched and affected by an apparent unseen spirit. She hears it coming, as the door rattles as it arrives in the bedroom. It tickles her, strokes her face and head, thumps the bed, touches her and she feels it moving around on the bed at night.

– Uncomfortable and frightening full body ‘tingling’ sensations are experienced at night. The feeling of ‘energy’ enveloping the woman whilst in her bed. She knows when it is around as the feeling it gives her makes her feel ill.

– Many times the activity will last all night long causing a serious lack of sleep.

– The night time sensations sometimes become so unbearable that the woman will go out and sleep in her car to try to escape whatever is causing it.

– Unexplained noises are also heard in the walls and ceiling.

– A Nanny employed by the family had her daughter complain that there was something moving on her bed and when the nanny investigated she could see the imprint of something on the bed. The master bedroom was where most of the recent activity had happened, but the hallway, bedrooms and garage were also interesting as that was where other activity had occurred.

First Impressions

Barbara – The house was very orderly, clean and tidy. It had been extensively renovated including the addition of a lot of Rimu and glass joinery inside (interior wall, cupboards, wardrobes etc).

The master bedroom had bare walls and looked to have had recent plasterwork done in preparation for paint or papering.

Feelings

Barbara – Initially I had no change of feelings or emotion, however in the master bedroom when The owner was saying that “it” was there, I did get strong physical sensations of energy in my lower back and stomach. It’s very hard to explain but felt like a weird “tingling pins and needles”. It was not a pleasant feeling. I have felt this before but not as strongly as it was at times during this investigation.

Investigation

The owner walked us through the house and explained the various ongoing activities that had been experienced in the home over many years.

We then carried out as thorough an investigation as time would allow, including temperature readings and EMF sweeps of all rooms, communication sessions in key areas, taking hundreds of photos and filming video footage of areas of interest (including times when the owner indicated that she could feel the spirit energy was with her).

The whole investigation was also audio recorded.

We were lucky enough to have the owner indicate that the energy was in the room with us several times which meant that we could focus on trying to get evidence of the energy/spirit at those times.

Interestingly, while the EMF meter did not indicate activity at that time, the studfinder indicated that there was some sort of interference. We were able to document several odd noises that occurred during our investigation

8pm & 10pm Ambient and surface temperature readings

– Front entrance – Ambient 18 degrees / surface 19.1   and   Ambient 17.8 degrees / surface 18.5

– Inside front door, living room – Ambient 17.8 degrees / surface 18.1   and  Ambient 17.9 degrees / surface 18.7

– First bedroom – Ambient 18 degrees / surface 17.5   and   Ambient 17.3 degrees / surface 18.7

– Single bedroom – Ambient 18.3 degrees / surface 18.2   and  Ambient 17.4 degrees / surface 18.7

– Hallway – Ambient 18 degrees / surface 17.9  and   Ambient 17.9 degrees / surface 18.1

– Bathroom – Ambient 18 degrees / surface 17.7 (Tiles and glass windows made this room colder than the others)   and  Ambient 17.2 degrees / surface 17.9

– Shower / toilet ensuite – Ambient 18 degrees / surface 16.8  and  Ambient 17.2 degrees / surface 17.9

– Master bedroom – Ambient 18 degrees / surface 17.4    and  Ambient 17.8 degrees / surface 18.2

– Laundry off kitchen – Ambient 18 degrees / surface 17.8   and  Ambient 17.9 degrees / surface 17.4

– Lounge room – Ambient 19 degrees / surface 20.8   and  Ambient 18 degrees / surface 18.5

– Kitchen – Ambient 19 degrees / surface 21   and  Ambient 18 degrees / surface 18.8

– Upstairs stairwell – Ambient 19 degrees / surface 17.00  and  Ambient 18 degrees / surface 18.2

Noted: Stairwell temperature fluctuated suddenly and briefly from 19 to 21 degrees as I ascended the stairs into the spare room at 8pm. This did not occur at the 10pm temperature check.

– Upstairs Spare room – Ambient 19 degrees / surface 17.8   and  Ambient 18.5 degrees / surface 18.1

Descending the stairwell, the ambient temperature leapt again from 17 degrees to 21 degrees at the 8pm, but not the 10pm update.

I could not find any reason for this happening. If the temperature had dropped instead of increased, I could have put it down to cool air movement, but in this case, that theory didn’t fit.

EMF Field levels

EMF levels stayed constant at zero throughout the entire house, except for in the master bedroom.

On the wall to the right of the couple’s bed, the EMF meter immediately went off the scale. We were able to trace the area and size of the unusually high energy and its path. It was presumed at the time that there might have been wiring inside the wall cavity, though we were unable to confirm this.

Barbara – I found it very interesting that my studfinder went off (sound and light initially) when the owner said she felt that “it” was with her in the bedroom. Then when “it” was no longer there, the studfinder stopped only to start flashing (no sound though) again once the owner said the spirit was back in the room.

The light on it continued to flicker at various times during the investigation and did seem to correspond with when the owner said she sensed that the spirit was in the room.

When the owner felt something in the bedroom I did also feel an odd sensation in my stomach and lower back. It felt almost like an electrical vibration and was quite strong and not pleasant. I have felt that sensation before but not as intensely as during this investigation. I noticed it a few times and it lasted from a few seconds to about a minute. I do question whether I was imagining it due to what the owner had told me and it is unfortunate that we have no way of verifying this feeling, however I have not felt that sensation since that investigation.

Mark’s meter indicated that there was high EMF in some small areas of the master Bedroom. My studfinder indicated that at times there was some sort of energy in the bedroom. It was making such a broken beeping sound I didn’t even recognise it as my studfinder initially!

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The Clearing

At the end of the investigation, Barbara conducted an energetic clearing ritual which involved ‘smudging’ the entire home. (The burning of sage).

“Smudging” is the common name given to a powerful cleansing technique from the Native American tradition; however, the burning of herbs for emotional, psychic, and spiritual purification is a common practice among many religious, healing, and spiritual traditions. It is a ceremonial way to cleanse a person, place or an object of negative energies or influences and replace with positive energy to hopefully restore balance within the home. It is also an effective method for energizing or blessing a person, place or object.

Barbara – Whilst doing the clearing in the garage I saw one of the towels hanging on a line jump as though someone had yanked on the washing line. I was the only one there at the time as the others were following me and had not yet entered the room. At this time, as Barbara was in the garage and I was behind her , with the owner behind me, we all heard a metallic “ping” which sounded like something metal (maybe the weight of a key) had dropped to the floor. Barbara continued with the clearing whilst we set about searching the floor for any sign of what had dropped. We could not find anything that would have made that noise.

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Conclusion

Barbara – The investigation went well. We probably could have had a few more investigators there but we were able to do temperatures and EMF sweeps as well conducting a full investigation.

The client seemed happy and made a lovely supper for us.

I’d love to put infrared cameras in to see if they picked up anything over a longer time period (preferably through the night). It would also be very interesting to get another sensitive in to see if they also got the same strong sensation as both Sue and I got when the spirit comes close.

I saw, heard and physically felt enough to consider that it may be possible that this home is haunted. I cannot be certain of this as further investigation would be required but I would definitely be interested in doing further investigation and research in this home.

Mark – The occupants do not use any medication. Have no mental illness. The owner has had a full health check due to the worry of assuming it was her that had a problem. Only a sleeping pill is taken from time to time to aid sleep, nothing else.

The woman experiencing this activity seemed, alert, intelligent, healthy and perfectly sane. There was no sign of depression or menopause or anything of a similar nature that could possibly have explained a few of the elements. The woman came across as genuine in her claims and had made efforts to communicate and capture on her cellphone what was happening.

I thought the temperature drop on the stairs was unusual and I could not explain this occurrence.

The stories of the ghost dwarf fascinated me. I’d love to cover this case some more in the hopes of capturing an image or video footage of it.

While we didn’t come out of this with much unusual data to work with, I still feel that this bungalow might be housing a few neat mysteries. The sense of honesty and genuine frustration was evident here. I do not believe this woman is making all this up.

The fact that numerous people, from children to adults (plus an ex husband, an un- family related Nanny and a group of stranger Mediums) have all had experiences within the home, tells me it’s not a case of one person’s mental illness. I won’t yet say this home is haunted, but at this point it’s certainly straying well outside the usual realms of normality.

Case still open.

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