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.
U R B E X C E N T R A L 
Great shots! So creepy
what town was this in ?? or near
Hi, we don’t give out specifics about locations publicly I’m afraid but thanks for your question, UC.
Here let me Google that…
I’m from there not really that spooky to be honest, there is a church and people live up there too about 5 minutes walk from the main road into town
We prefer not to talk about the location of our pictures publicly as that can make it an easy target for vandals etc.
Hokitika NZ
Its not going to matter about the vandlas mate. Since those photos the whole place has been let go to rot by the owners. Soon to be bulldozed.
This asylum was in hokitika right next to the old cemetry very scary to walk around
I used to work there till 1997, think it was about 4 years later it was closed. In its time it was one of the most advanced hospitals in the southern hemisphere
Shesh has dilapidated a lot in the last 10 years since I last walked through there. Although they have missed some of the underground tunnels
Tunnels? 😮 Sounds cool!
Yes there are/were tunnels between the villas which connected the central heating (steam) and water from the boiler room (North end of the Hospital) to each villa. I went through the tunnels many years ago. There were even underground rooms where mini boilers where installed at some stage (the boilers where gone when I was in there). I rented a house on the grounds when it was a working hospital.
There are underground car parks, jails and morges.
Heh, my mum worked there and I lived just on the opposite side of the cemetery from there.
Nice man, was it a nice place to work do you know?
It was a good place to work… I started my nursing career there27 years ago. Great team work, mind you, you needed that kind of support to keep ones own sanity! But it was a typical institution. progress had to be made, yet sad to see it in this state! Thanks for the great memories!
Hey Gavin – the good ol’ days when we used to play in the cemetery and sometimes venture around SeaView on our bikes – looks pretty sad since those days ay? Bec (Ward)
My Mum worked there before I was born. It really wasn’t viewed as a bad place back in the day. But now all forgotten and forlorn it has developed the ‘creep’ factor for sure!! At one point there was talk of a major new international development happening on the site, but the world economic downturn saw that all fizzle out.
I was literally living in part of that place two years ago with my mothers abusive ex and my mother…
I use to work there before it closed down for good there is a book out about b4 it become a hospital when it use to be a jail think its called misery hill ,
I have memories of singing carols there every Christmas for the patients. There was also a general hospital there at one stage.
I don’t think it is creepy, just neglected.
I used to work there and loved my job, it was very sad for me when I had to leave due to personal circumstances as I had worked there for 20 years straight from school. Its very sad to see these pictures as what it is like today, was a great loss. I have heaps of good and some not so good memories of my time there, from the staff and patients I worked with , I worked in mental health for a further 6 years after I left but it was never the same but worse, I retrained to include general nursing and am now district nursing in the community, I will never work in the mental health field again.
If it was such a good place then why do so many people in the community get all up set and try change the subject when ever someone starts asking questions about what was really going on, I know for a fact that there were dodgy things done to the patients in the early days, hell if you were a pregnant teen and the father of the child was not around you were sent there and put on god knows what drugs, sad part is a lot of people who in today’s society you would call normal went there and never left. there is nothing about the place at the museum that is actually worth reading.
everything has been deleted from history. there is a memorial for the body’s that were just chucked in holes after they had been experimented on and died but all it says is something about unmarked graves. sad really, place should be burnt down
Bullshit total rubbish, complete nonsense
My Great-Grandfather was one of the psychiatrists there
My mum worked there, and I was born there. The maternity ward was beautiful, and overlooked the sea, with lovely gardens. Later I worked there part time in the kitchen. We had a fantastic vege garden out the back of the kitchen, and the mental patients used to come in and see us all the time. It was a very peaceful place when I worked there, it saddens me everytime I go up there for a drive.
Fantastic looking place, excellent pics.
i worked there for a short time, my parents worked there for 15 years, never heard of anything dodgy happening to patients, lived in a staff house for a few years and explored the bush and grounds throughly never found any tunnels tho
It’s so beautiful up there the view is amazing, I never heard of anything bad going on there, nice walk up there
my mother used to go there as we were kids not very good memories but hey it helped her thanks to the support from staff
My home town. .Worked there 20+ years ago. . Was great place for those who weren’t wanted in society. .most of the staff were cool and cared about the patients. Also know of some horror stories. . Shame is in such a state as its in such a beautiful spot. .
My great-grandmother was a patient here, went in when she was pregnant and never left. A lot of my family are buried in the cemetery as well. Mum took me up on our last family trip up there and had some great stories to tell.
Good place to film some walking dead shows. I was up there looking around a year ago.
I stayed there in a flat for nine months with x partner.when you told the locals you stay there they went quiet and changed subject.i couldn’t bear the side of the building where the treatment area was and this was before I knew it was the crazy place.the stories go that the patients try to come home.well I know better because some of them are still there.crawling in the ceilings at night.hiding in the closets of some of the many flats in the old buildings I found where they were camping..i was unaware until one night the door handle went up and down lucky door was locked.locked out window and guy sitting in my car.nailed every window shut and locked every door only to find in morning at least ten windows were open.ended up leaving after cassette tapes with creepy songs ended up in my car.no ghosts folks just a feeling of sadness and atleast one very scary individual that watches you from a distance and disappears every time you try to approach.i hated the place.all the cops could say is it’s happened before sometimes they come home better you put some cans on strings so you hear them coming.
I don’t know if people would believe me if I said it, but there are so many spirits in this place that I’ve seen and heard when I was living up there, it is a scary the experience that I had up there it was terrifying.
I was on a family holiday (2010) and was searching for a place to stay when I was approached by an elderly man and suggested our family stay here for the night. we accepted the offer we used the facilities and yes it was a bit spooky, the kids loved it I put a sheet over my head and body and ran around scaring them. The next day we looked around and only guessed what some of the rooms and buildings where used for our imaginations ran wild.
My friend is moving there just wondering anyone know of any history etc of the two houses right across from the physciatric hospital be very interested on learning more about this