This tower that once supported a railway bridge, now looks more like a prop from a Peter Jackson movie. A prop nonetheless, that Gunner was obliged to conquer…
Category: New Zealand
2013 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for Urbex Central. Thanks for watching and stay tuned for 2014…
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 25,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 9 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
In Prison
One of New Zealand’s oldest prisons has finally closed its doors after a century of incarcerations. Getting into a prison is a bit of an oxymoron, but this didn’t stop UC from trying. As luck would have it a gate was left open and because no one was around…
Artillery
This coastal artillery battery (one of many) was built to defend New Zealand’s capital Wellington against a Naval attack. Work began in 1908 on constructing a 2 gun battery using 6″MkVII guns. By 1912 these 6″ guns were manned by the Wellington Naval Artillery Volunteers. At its prime at the beginning of World War II, this fort had a total of no less than four different batteries of guns, and became the HQ for the heavy artillery regiment that manned the various coastal defence batteries in and around Wellington.
Future Fix
Exploring the grounds of a former historic hospital- unfortunately now earmarked for demolition due to the large amount of asbestos and at least a $50m repair bill.
Quarantine
This former quarantine site is still full of macabre reminders of its former life, it now sits abandoned and vacant.
Portal
This 253 meter long former railway tunnel- constructed in the 1870′s- came to the end of it’s working life in 1955 when a replacement tunnel was opened. Apart from a bit of water seeping in through the cracks, it still seems in pretty sound order after all these years.
Cooler
Exploring the labyrinthian maze of a former cool store complex…
4 Drains + Eels
With the beginning of summer we cracked 4 new drains in one day, and met plenty of friendly eels along the way.
Termination
Opened in 1980 as a standalone abortion clinic.
A place of much controversy and protest throughout the years now lays idle with little remaining of its past other than a sadistic looking chair.
Drainy Season
Now that Wellington’s violent (some reaching 200km/hr winds) spring storms are finally ebbing away we can get back down into the slippery drains running through the city.
We recently explored an urban stream running through an industrial area – and found a drain, complete with concrete slipways in the process.
After traveling down the long tunnel we reached an impasse, a slippery slope into a deep pool of turbulent water – this is definitely a drain we will check out at the end of summer when we can progress further.
The entrance to the tunnel looking out, here the walls have been light-painted green.
The stream passes right underneath many commercial properties.
Looking down the long tunnel to the black abyss at the end.
Lightpainting the long tunnel with a 2 minute exposure.
Some rusty steel girders above the concrete slipway.
Examining the rusty girders.
The entrance to the tunnel (white balance adjusted).
An entrance to one of our old haunts nearby.
ill Institute
This purpose built institute- and accommodation halls- is now largely vacant and abandoned… Constructed in the early 1970s in typical Brutalist style- the imposing, totalitarian and fortress like qualities are not exactly an architecture form for aspiring students…
Trolleying
One of Wellington’s defining features is our fleet of trolley buses, we found a couple of older models rusting in a paddock and decided on an inspection. The old signs hark back to simpler times.
Ford
Fording a stream in a rather unconventional manner, because here at Urbex Central we feel you don’t always need to take Urban Exploration seriously 🙂
Man on Wire
Gunner gets in some tight rope walking practise up the cables of an abandoned suspension bridge. This particular bridge was a crucial factor to the success of this region in the early to mid 19th century. Check out Gunner’s video of the event here…
Hilltop Sanatorium
This imposing building on the hill overlooking a small country town has had several uses in it’s lifetime.
It was initially constructed as a hospital for veterans returning home from the great war, before being re-purposed as a sanatorium (tuberculosis hospital).
After 60 years and over 7000 patients, and with the number of cases of TB in decline in New Zealand the hospital became a safe haven for the handicapped and for people suffering from head injuries.
The hospital has gone through another metamorphosis in the new millennium and is now used as part of a larger vineyard complex, we popped by for an inspection on our travels through the North Island.
gymguano
Okay- so what else do you call a video exploring an abandoned school gymnasium full of pigeon poop…? 🙂
Freestyle
Sometimes we don’t even have to search for a new location- we just stumble on them. This abandoned rural school and pool is a good example. We came across it accidentally while taking some time out from exploring a nearby complex. Someone’s got to brush up on their freestyle strokes though 🙂
Bad Education
This former highschool was closed about 15 years ago. The decay and vandalism that has occurred in the interim is astounding. It’s finally due for demolition soon and the land it occupies is to be developed into a retirement village.
Trig or Track
“Don’t play on the tracks- head for the high ground”. Why not do both? Part II of Escarpment…
The Dead Pool
“I’ve never let my school interfere with my education.” Mark Twain
Psych
This former notorious rural psychiatric hospital- see this post- was visited by one of our group back in 2008. The majority of the buildings then were mostly intact with minimum vandalism. Today many of the buildings have been demolished, with the remainder largely abandoned or used as storage. Incredibly though a number of the villa’s are now reoccupied, by apparently sane people.
The Centre
At the close of the Second World War, this former Air Force base was converted into a “Mental Deficiency Colony” to house children deemed ‘backward’. By the mid 1970′s it had become the largest psychopaedic hospital in the southern hemisphere, with a population exceeding 700. The centre was “deinstitutionalised” in 2005 and has been largely abandoned, but not forgotten.
Ammo
Exploring what we think were former ammuntion stores- though from the ouside they look more like hobbit holes…
Escuela Mala
“I had a terrible education. I attended a school for emotionally disturbed teachers.”
Woody Allen
Pyro
Pyromania is an impulse control disorder in which individuals repeatedly fail to resist impulses to deliberately start fires, in order to relieve tension, for gratification or for relief. The term pyromania comes from the Greek word πῦρ (‘pyr’, fire).
This was just one of a dozen buildings torched by a pyromaniac over a single weekend two years ago. A Porirua man was eventually charged with 13 arsons that included setting fire to five churches, but was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Seahouse
There are people who, like houses, are beautiful in dilapidation. Logan P. Smith
T.A.B
Horsing around at a deserted racecourse and inspecting a disused tote building…
Departures
“This is the final call for flight UC101. Departing at 1300 hours from Gate 9 for Space Station X…” With a bit of imagination, this abandoned airport boarding bridge could be a gateway to another reality…
Rolling
Abandoned rolling-stock, or so we thought. They’d been sitting there idle for years, but within a couple of weeks of our visit- they had disappeared without a trace…
Drainspotting
“Never play on the train tracks”- but no one said anything about playing under the tracks…
In Vivo
In vivo (Latin for “within the living”) is experimentation using a whole, living organism as opposed to a partial or dead organism. Animal testing and clinical trials are two forms of in vivo research. On average around 300,000 animals per year are used in experimentation, testing and teaching in New Zealand – from cats and dogs to rabbits, deer, mice, rats, fish, birds, pigs, cows and guinea pigs. This particular former testing facility has been irresponsibly left to the ravages of time and vandalism, a haunting reminder of what we commit in the name of science.
The Convent
This former Catholic girls boarding school and convent was closed in the mid 1980′s. The buildings have been used for a variety of purposes over the years (including featuring in a couple of Peter Jackson films), but it has now been deemed unsafe and closed indefinately. Although carrying the Historic Places Trust’s highest heritage protection status, the closure due to being “Earthquake prone” has left it in a strange kind of limbo. The future looks very bleak indeed for this Historic landmark.
Bad Science
Some more Chemistry experiments from a former tertiary institution… This is both a sequel and companion to Gunner’s Big Science.
PTA
This Historic Hospital (c.1880) still stands in its dilapidated state, 22 years after its closure. When the hospital finally closed its doors in 1990, it had served the district for over a century. Locals have been complaining for years about the eyesore, demanding the owner of the property to demolish the derelict and vandalised buildings.
The Tower
The iconic Hawera water tower has watched over this South Taranaki town for a century now. Standing at 55 meters high, the tower was saved from demolition after years of neglect in the 80s/90s had made it unsafe. Hawera (or “Te Hawera”) literally means ‘the burnt place’, and originates after an incident between two feuding Maori tribes in the area. One tribe attacked the other during the night and burned their village down- so it became known as ‘the burnt place’.
We’ll Take Care Of Your Children
This old building was once a nursery which helped to raise numerous children in the Wellington region. The building’s future is now questionable as it sits right in the path of a new roading project. It will probably either be moved or demolished, and Wellington may lose yet another historic building.
Don’t Be In The Dark
A night visit to our favourite local factory… Documenting its history & decline- was interrupted by Gunner’s insistence on throwing a bit of light on the subject…
Hospital Complex
We would have stayed longer and explored more of the buildings at this picturesque hospital situated high on a hill with fantastic views, but some local homies decided to ruin our fun. These buildings are all in poor condition and are incredibly earthquake prone (some of the masonry is crumbling), the homies were playing loud music with their sub, perhaps in an attempt to initiate a partial collapse of the buildings.
Power
The huge generators in this power station are still fully operational, but it is unlikely that it will ever put another kW of power into the grid as it has been disconnected.
A group of enthusiasts maintain this fantastic example of engineering and occasionally hold open days, we were lucky enough to be passing by when one of their group was doing maintenance inside and allowed us (and now you) to have a peek at the inner workings.
Hilltop Hospital in East Manawatu
This rural hospital became defunct once the small country town in which it is located upgraded their facilities and build a new hospital on a different site, by the time we managed to explore it an entire wing had been removed and much of the interior had been stripped and sold to building recyclers. It is a shame to lose what was once such a nice example of art deco architecture. These photos were taken by an associate of ours, so credit goes to them for the images.
Lighthouse Keepers’ Houses
With the automation of lighthouses the job of lighthouse keeper and its associated chattels and residences soon became a thing of the past. Here we see the remaining lighthouse keepers’ houses at a lighthouse standing vigil near the entrance to Cook Strait.
Liebster Award
One of our Urbex Central followers has nominated us for the Liebster Award – which is like a chain letter of affection from one blogger to the next, but without the spurious claims of profound loss of luck if the chain is broken. Thank you Tina of Everyday life in Vienna (aka tinasrabbithole). Tina’s faithful ‘likes’ regularly skew the fragile ecosystem of our blog’s statistics, conveying the impression that we’ve established a hardcore following of Austrians. In fact, we have found a hardcore following in one Norwegian ex-Wellingtonian residing in Vienna. But who’s counting anyway? Check out Tina’s observations from a land where lovers lock themselves to bridges, and toilet patrons make use of a handy little porcelain shelf upon which to inspect their own (and conceivably, one another’s?) stools for ‘health reasons’.
Apparently the Liebster guidelines require us to say a little about ourselves, and suggest some blogs worth checking out.
Righto. Well Urbex Central is playground to a group of charming subversives who unite under the nom de plume The Inspectres. We delight in going places that get our hearts racing, our senses maxing-out, our limbs aching and our imaginations whirring. We are really just finding our feet as a collective, discovering through trial and error what each of us can do: find, scout, film, shoot, edit, write, act, climb, sneak, slither, haul, impersonate, improvise, infiltrate. Wellington, New Zealand feels right now like it is opening in our hands like some kind of exotic stone fruit. We’re savoring it.
As far as blogs we follow, they are as diverse as we are.
We certainly love the photography of Fergus Cunningham.
We contribute to the work of Wellingtonia.
It’s always interesting to see what thecoffeeimp has been doing the morning after what we’ve been doing the night before.
iambidong has been generous with what he knows and what he shoots. He has released a free ebook (for people new to the idea of urban exploration) here
That’s plenty. Liebster Awards for them all!
Thanks for following us, and happy exploration to you, in whatever way that manifests in your own life.
Warmly,
Gunner
The Bunker
An abandoned former harbour defence gun battery, up above the Wellington Harbour. Someone else thought it was a great location- for a party- a rave we heard…
Copshop
A former police station in the suburbs. Prior to being a copshop, it was the other arm of the law- a court house…
U R B E X C E N T R A L 
