The new occupants of a property in Kingseat report unusual footsteps and visual phenomena in a former nurse’s residence.
History and Background
Kingseat Village is 30km south of Auckland CBD, close to the southern shore of the Manukau Harbour. It is 13km west of State Highway 1, and 13km North-West of Pukekohe. The current former Kingseat Hospital site is part of a larger area of land purchased in 1927 for the establishment of a new mental health hospital. Construction of buildings commenced in 1928 and continued through to the 1960s. In the mid 1960s the number of patients at the hospital peaked at around 1000. At a similar time the farm originally associated with the hospital was separated. The hospital closed in 1997. Previous to this, on the other side of the river from Kingseat, in old Maori times, was the Waiau Pa, which was a large fishing fortified village. This area was important to Maori, and has been the issue of treaty negotiations.
Kingseat’s hospital blocks and staff houses are now rented out although some still stand empty and unkempt. Part of it is also used as the “Spookers” haunted attraction. The house that Haunted Auckland was called to was formerly used as nurse’s accommodation (according to the resident of the house).
Haunted Auckland was called to the house following unusual noises, footsteps and sighting of a spirit in the home. We made two visits to the house. The first visit was attended by Mark, Matthew and Kris. This was followed up a week later by a visit and subsequent house clearing by Barbara, Kel and Karen.
Investigation
The Haunted Auckland groups carried out a Class 2 investigation at the Kingseat house.
Both investigations began with a chat with the lady of the house and a tour of the home where she pointed out rooms and places where activity had been noticed. The first visit was held on a rather cold, bleak, drizzly evening while the second group visited during a warm, sunny early evening.
The house itself was a somewhat rundown older style modest single level, brick and weatherboard dwelling. All fittings, floors, walls ect appeared to be original to the house. There were signs of the house having had seen historic violence and neglect with multiple holes punched or kicked in walls, various scratches and cuts in doors and on walls and scars on doors where lettering had once been. The house was clean and tidy for our visits and it should be noted that the current occupants had only been in the home for a few months and were in no way responsible for the present condition of the house.
There were four bedrooms. Two were in use as bedrooms, one as a storeroom and one was empty. The living areas consisted of a lounge/dining room which was beside a small kitchen. There was a toilet, a separate bathroom and a laundry. A hallway ran through the house and had the lounge/dining room, kitchen, all four bedrooms, bathroom and toilet coming off it.
During the investigations the Haunted Auckland teams took EMF readings, temperature readings, photos, video, audio recordings, held EVP sessions. All rooms (including under the house and in the ceiling cavity) were checked for temperature fluctuations, EMF readings, and had numerous photos, video, audio recordings taken. EVP sessions were also done in several of the rooms. Kris also trialled a live listening technique for EVP’s.
We found that the EMF readings were very flat over the whole property (base lined to near zero) and the only spikes were generated by electronic equipment. Temperature readings were constant throughout the house, although the end (empty) bedroom was slightly colder than the rest of the home.
The first group experienced nothing unusual. Mark commented… “I feel that the majority of the activity was being experienced on a different level than what I could experience. The lady owner is a self-confessed psychic so sees and hears things quite regularly.”
The second group to visit (which had some of the Haunted Auckland’s ‘sensitives’ in it) had some possible paranormal experiences which included cold sensations on their bodies and cold spots being felt in rooms, a feeling of being unwell, and two members felt that they had difficulty breathing.
During EVP sessions in the first bedroom, spare bedroom and in the end (empty) bedroom all members of the group smelt firstly a chemical odour and then later a Jasmine flower smell.
Karen explains this possibly paranormal happening… “Barbara originally reported smelling a chemical smell in Sue’s room. Kel moved closer and picked up on it. I came closer and caught the smell too. To be clear, it wasn’t the room that smelled – it was a fleeting impression of a smell that we were picking up, but it was very distinctively a chemical smell. Barbara originally suggested nail polish remover (acetone?) and it did indeed have that ‘catch in the back of your throat’ quality to it. Upon moving to the empty bedroom, we took it in turns to touch the back wall of the recessed wardrobe/cupboard. Kel went first, and upon my attempt, I again picked up the chemical smell (which was far stronger this time) and which originally hit me as being stale cat wee… which was when I instantly realised that what I smelled was ammonia. Barbara still stuck with ‘nail polish remover’… but I was convinced of it being ammonia.”
“After I had smelled the ammonia again as I was touching the wardrobe, the smell immediately vanished and was replaced by the strong and unmistakable fragrance of fresh jasmine flowers. It was so strong and distinctive that I actually poked my head out to look for the flowers I must be smelling. But the room was empty, there were no flowers outside (and the windows were closed) and none of the team were wearing perfume. Barbara also smelled jasmine while touching the wardrobe wall, but Kel didn’t pick up on this.”
It is also interesting that Kel and Karen both reported a sense of having difficulty breathing and a strange sensation in their chests, which started upon the team entering the building and remained with them throughout the investigation. Karen explains… “We were given a brief tour of the house and upon walking into the first bedroom we were shown I felt a tightness and pressure high up in my chest, which remained with me for the rest of the investigation, and which became more intense at certain times. I’m not asthmatic, but it was kind of a ‘hard-to-breathe’ sensation.” Karen later said that she had the word ‘Tuberculosis’ had come into her head.
Also Kel and Barbara both felt very unwell at times during the investigation.
Barbara explains what happened… “I had been feeling fine throughout the investigation. We had been in the house for about 90 minutes and I decided to go into the bathroom to take some audio recordings and try an EVP session. I had been in the bathroom for about two minutes when I felt nauseous and dizzy. It hit me suddenly and I knew I needed to get out of that room. I went into another room and after about 5 minutes the feeling slowly passed.”
Kel also had times when she felt unwell… “I touched the bathtub I felt dizzy and nauseous. My whole body throbbed even my head. I decided to sit in the bathtub with the owner’s permission. I am sitting in the bathtub I still felt dizzy and nauseous. After getting past this I felt my arms and legs shaking. I sensed something had happened in the bathtub, I closed my eyes and saw a bit clearer a picture of a women being pushed under the water. I saw her arms and legs threshing in the bathtub I could see a hand and arm pushing her under the water drowning her.” Interestingly Kris (with the first group) also had a feeling of… ‘years of tears and desperation’ about the bathroom and bedroom.
Findings
The team at Haunted Auckland took hundreds of photos, and many hours of video and audio recordings. Upon reviewing all this we did discover several photos that had possible anomalies. Eventually they were all were eliminated. Upon reviewing the audio recordings and EVP sessions from both sessions they were unreliable (so therefore unusable) due to the occupants of the house having the TV playing loudly or music playing and the neighbours having conversations outside the windows where we were recording.
Our EMF and temperature readings did not show anything of significance. Our group of sensitives however did have some interesting experiences; odours, breathing and chest problems, nausea, feelings etc though none of this could actually be documented.
Conclusion
The Haunted Auckland group had differing opinions on what was actually happening at the house.
Kel – “In conclusion I do think there could be residual energy remaining in the house. I felt that there were a lot of entities there too. My findings are inconclusive if the place is haunted or not.”
Mark – “There weren’t any physical, documentable visions with any detail or substance just vague implied feelings that there was something there (about the activity in the house). Due to this and the fact that I didn’t see, feel, hear, or was able to document anything unusual there at this initial session to indicate that there was anything paranormal going on in the house, I would have to say that on first impressions that the house isn’t haunted.”
Karen – “I do think this building was haunted – and that it also contained plenty of residual energy which had accumulated over the years – not all of which was positive/beneficial to be around. The definite smells, receiving impressions of words, and sensations in my chest/lungs lead me to conclude that it was a haunting by an intelligent presence that was causing this.”
Most of the Haunted Auckland Group agreed that there would possibly be residual negative energy in the house. Matthew sums this up with… “I believe the property had seen some violence in the past which may contribute negative energy to the house, however there was nothing specific about that property that I could see or feel that would indicate an active haunting.”
Hi which staff house was this?
Since this is now a private residence we can’t disclose specifics about the property. We can state that it is in close proximity to the Kingseat Hospital grounds, but not within the grounds themselves.
Residual Negative Energy … nope not that DEMONIC ACTIVITY – that’s what’s left there … people that live there will have BIG problems in their lives & health the whole must receive CLEANSING with 100 BELIEVERS of Jesus Christ & then demolition into a Memoriam for the respect of what happened to innocent souls here …