Mark Wallbank is an independent, as well as team-based researcher and has been mad on everything Paranormal, Extraterrestrial and Crypto-zoological, since early childhood. At around age ten, I was already out conducting my own solo investigations in derelict and abandoned farmhouses around the early years of the Howick / Pakuranga area.
When not creating electronic music, Photography, writing articles, reviewing music, watching Horror movies and documentaries, collecting skulls, fossils, dead creepy crawlies and adopting unwanted allegedly haunted items, doing event promotions work,(as well as working a full-time day job) I have spent countless hours investigating, exploring and furthering my research out in the field, either as part of a group or solo, since the late 70’s.
I am a loyal member of quite a few research organisations around the world that I look to for guidance, education, and networking.
I’m a decade+ long member of the somewhat prestigious Ghost Club; founded in 1862 in the UK and recognised as the world’s oldest organisation associated with psychical research, The Society for Psychical Research (SPR – 1882), ASSAP – The Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena; a UK-based education and research charity, The Parapsychological Association, established in 1957, an international professional organization of scientists and scholars engaged in the study of psi (or ‘psychic’) experiences, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, psychic healing, and precognition. The Australian Institute of Parapsychological Research, Heritage New Zealand, and to keep myself grounded I’m also a member of NZ Skeptics.
Around 1983, a couple of friends and I formed the Auckland Ghost Hunting Group. We would spend our weekends roaming the abandoned ruins of farmhouses and deceased factory buildings, scattered around the as yet undeveloped farmland of early Howick and Pakuranga, as well as many a night sitting in cemeteries around Auckland, armed with a tape cassette recorder and cameras. The group disbanded within 3 years, as members grew up, got jobs, and moved into different suburbs. So, refusing to neglect my passion, I spent the next 20 or so years conducting my research independently, around New Zealand and abroad.
During this time I stayed active and investigated a few locations, whilst organising and attending a few meet-up/discussion evenings, ran two popular websites Club Bizarre and blog/news site, BizarreNZ (one winning multiple awards), published two separate bi-monthly magazines, helped coordinate a dark arts festival, as well as had a few of my photographs displayed as part of an exhibition of NZ-based dark art & photography.
In 2010, I decided it was time to get back into investigating as a team. There was something about being able to share the experience with others, that I missed, so I took BizarreNZ into the next step of its continual development. From a solo effort, back into a team situation. Starting off as Haunted Auckland, the team evolved further into a more focused version; Paranormal New Zealand in 2023.
My research has led me all over New Zealand as well as much exploration and investigation internationally and have clocked up around 40-odd years of out-in-the-field experience in my time. I have given many talks at paranormal events around New Zealand, Australia, and the U.K.
I have published five books on the paranormal subject;
- Voices in the Walls – Living the Paranormal in New Zealand. [2015]
- Talking to Shadows – A New Zealand Paranormal team’s search for answers. [2016]
- Haunted New Zealand Road-trip – In search of Paranormal Activity (New Holland Publishers) [2017]
- Haunted Auckland – Explore chilling secrets and eerie mysteries in New Zealand’s largest city [2023]
- Haunted South Island – Exploring the Strange and Paranormal in New Zealand [2024]
plus many articles and reviews for numerous print and online magazines and books through the years.
I don’t consider myself a ”believer”, more an open minded agnostic who has experienced enough in my life to realise that there is definitely something to all this: it isn’t all delusion, and research is very much worthy and valid. My personal approach to researching and investigating the paranormal, is more from an observational and documentarian stance. I’m certainly no armchair researcher and prefer to visit the actual locations, talk directly to the witnesses and experiencers, to get a first-hand, boots-on-the- ground view with each case I delve into. Documenting each case is very important to me. I’ve found that answers can often be found, in the finer, less obvious details.
I am proud and privileged to lead one of New Zealand’s most recognised and active paranormal research and investigation groups, Paranormal NZ. (Formerly Haunted Auckland)