Month: September 2014

The Chancery Arcade

This shopping arcade in central Christchurch was once bustling with shoppers, now damaged beyond repair it awaits its fate of demolition. The owner of the arcade before the earthquakes was a millionaire business who has since declared bankruptcy with the fate of this arcade being the last straw. While exploring the arcade we bumped into a man who used to work in the mall who described the place as being a great place to shop that soon turned into a ghetto once a strip club and dodgy bar were opened on the second story by the millionaire owner.

by urbexcentral

Korokoro dam

Built in 1903, the Korokoro dam was the first gravity fed concrete dam in New Zealand. It was originally constructed to supply water to Petone, some kilometers away.
The dam is now defunct and full of silt.

by urbexcentral

Undercity – House beneath the hotel

Until finding this place, I had no idea there was any kind of undercity in Wellington (drains notwithstanding).
It seems this hulking highrise luxury hotel has been built directly on top of an old house which is accessible from a dank ledge perched beneath the overhead colossus. Supporting columns sprout from the floors and pigeons seem to have taken up residence in this old home. Given Wellington’s tectonic nature, this was somewhat of an uneasy location to explore – but a very cool one nonetheless.

I’m not sure what the motivation was here in not demolishing the house, perhaps it was impossible to do so given some heritage protection – so the developers may have just worked “around” the problem…

Some old hotel paperwork hint at the house being previously accessible from the hotel above – but now any such route has been sealed over and the only access is via a a climb through a trash, rat and sewage filled dead space between buildings.

Tempting…
by urbexcentral

International School

This International School was one of the main international schools in Christchurch, after extensive demolition in the central business district of Christchurch this is one of the last multi storey buildings awaiting demolition. There were many interesting items left here from when the earthquake happened in February 2011 which paint a sad picture of the day the people evacuated in panic and were never allowed to return.

by urbexcentral

Abandoned Strippers

Along our journey exploring what Christchurch had to offer with our new found friend, Wildboyz we found something we had never explored before, an abandoned strip club! In the past we have found the odd brothel but never a strip club and with it a load of old artifacts such as stripper dollars, stilettos, g strings and even a hidden secret room that was for the most “special” of customers at the fine establishment, I hope you enjoy our latest post.

by urbexcentral

Sea View Asylum

Located in a tiny town on a remote coast of New Zealand lies this bizarre and mysterious old mental hospital which started life as a gaol and decommissioned as a hospital in the 90’s. Amazingly throughout its operation there were no reports of mistreatment unlike other hospitals of this era, however due to the remoteness of this place it makes you wonder even more what really happened between these walls with electric shock treatment being just one of the horrible treatments used at the time.

On our drive over to this asylum, U.K based explorer WildBoyz,  who had joined up with us for this explore seemed rather perplexed by the windy roads and the remoteness of where we were headed, persistent in my desire to find this location I reassured him it would be worth the drive, I hope you will agree.

by urbexcentral