Footsteps on the Verandah

Jack Skinner alone can surely boast
Of having seen the Godley Ghost;
'T'was way up in the Sardine Hut,
Where spooks and phantoms nightly strut,
For there, among the rocks and water,
He saw the famous Devil 's daughter.

Now spooks, like fleas, they fear the light,
So to the hut they came at night.
Jack Skinner had just arrived, you see,
Back from Fairlie on the spree.
And like all men his happiness grew,
With some of Scotland's famous brew.

Excerpt from Ernie Slow's ballad

The quiet, the alone, those reasons we head into the bush can also make it a frightening place. It shouldn’t be a surprise then there are plenty of stories out there about things seen in the shadows and the following are just a few tales of the haunted outdoors, a place where you might not be as alone as you think.

Hooker Hut - Mt Cook/Aoraki National Park

Sitting just below Hooker Glacier, Hooker Hut was built in 1909 and is the oldest standing hut in the national park. One of the hut builders, Peter Graham, was the first to suggest it was haunted. In 1913, while tramping alone, he believed he shared it with a ghostly presence. Throughout the night he heard footsteps in the otherwise unoccupied hut, and what sounded ‘for all the world like a man turning in his bunk’. As recently as 2009, two DOC employees staying in the hut one night, heard footsteps on the verandah, the thud of someone dropping a pack to the ground.

But the hut is not the only haunted part of the park. In 1914, a year after Graham’s unsettling experience, another of Hooker Hut’s builders, mountain guide Darby Thomson was killed by an avalanche while traversing between Hooker and Ball Huts. His ghost is said to have haunted that stretch of track ever since, searching in vain for its body.

Whariwharangi Bay Hut - Abel Tasman National Park

An old farmhouse that was built in 1897 and last inhabited in 1927, Whariwharangi Bay Hut is the northernmost hut on Abel Tasman Track. The story goes that the hut is haunted by the ghost of a 19th century sailor who was killed by Maori. Several visitors have reported strange goings on there, and perhaps the best example is the tale told by a young tramper from Christchurch. While staying in the hut during the night of a full moon, she claimed to have witnessed the spectral form of a young man bending over a sea chest.

Waitomo Caves

Before European settlement, and long before they became a tourist attraction, the Waitomo caves were often used by local Maori to bury their dead, including Kawhia chief Taane Tinorau. Visitors sometimes claim to have heard what sounds like people walking toward them, when alone in the caves. An unnamed rafting guide even reported feeling unseen hands attempting to suffocating him while inside one of the caves.

Powell Hut - Tararua Ranges

This popular hut is said to be haunted by the ghost of local hunter, Cedric Wilson. Wilson disappeared in the region in 1945, and friends who went in search of him claimed to feel his presence while staying in the hut.

John Coull Hut - Whanganui River

Accessible only via the river, John Coull Hut is a popular stopover of those making the 3-5 day canoe journey down the Whanganui River. Many years ago a suspicious death occurred near the hut, and ever since, unexplained rattlings on the roof have unsettled the hut’s occupants. Resident hut wardens vow that the noises are not being caused by possums.

Harper Pass Route - Southern Alps

The perturbing experience of one party of trampers on the arduous Harper Pass route began while out collecting firewood one night. One of the trampers stumbled across a human skeleton, probably belonging to a long lost miner. Apparently for a laugh, he picked up one of the leg bones and carried it back to the hut with him. Later, as the group sat around yarning, they experienced a sudden chill, and a strange sensation, as if there was now one more unseen member in their party. Making the wise conclusion that the miner’s leg bone was to blame, they hurled it out the door, into the bush. The next morning on their way out, the group passed by the miner’s remains and discovered to their surprise, both leg bones back in their place, just as they had been before.

Sources

The New Zealand Ghost Book by Robyn Jenkin (1978)
Unexplained New Zealand by Julie Miller & Grant Osborn (2007)
www.nzghosts.co.nz