A return and a farewell to an enormous, decaying industrial site- on the eve of its imminent demolition, decontamination and redevelopment. The soundtrack (The Overload) by Talking Heads, is the finale from their 1980 album “Remain in Light”.
Category: Taranaki
Chiller
A video from a couple of years ago- wandering around the creepy ruins of an abandoned cool-stores facility in Taranaki. Happy Halloween folks 😉
Power Station
This thermal power station was completed in 1972 and was decommissioned between 2001 and 2008, it’s chimney was once the tallest structure in New Zealand, it is now being demolished and in the final stages of demolition.
We began exploring this Power Station back in Easter where after trekking down in the darkness from the top of a hill we eventually reached a shoreline where we met a couple of angry seals who we had to dodge as they tried to attack us. Once we found our way in, avoiding light and the risk of areas with motion detectors we reached the main building, our eyes were greeted with a wonderland of ‘pipe-porn’ and steel. The first thing we knew we wanted to hit was the turbine room and to reach this we needed to scale some ladders through the maze of pipes and steel.
Upon reaching the turbine room we found a gigantic space full of yellow turbines, all fully lit up, the whole place echoed as you walked through it which made us feel on edge. After documenting the turbine room we advanced on to find the control room, from intel we had been given we attempted to enter through to the control room where we were met by locked doors, the control room was not to be seen that visit.
Included in this post are pictures months apart, the second series of pictures were pictures taken when the turbine room was mostly deconstructed but we finally found an intact control panel room :).
Power Station from the coast
Power station chimney detached!
Ladders up to the control room
Beneath the turbines
Turbine room
Turbine room
Turbine
Turbine room
Turbine room
Controls inside turbine room
Dismantled controls
Dismantled pipe-porn
Now dismantled under the turbines
Remnants of the turbine room
Remnants of the turbine room
Remnants of the turbine room
Remnants of the turbine room
Sealed off control panels in turbine room
Entrace to the control room
Control room
Control room
Control room
Control room
Control room
Control station 1
Control station 2
Evacuation
Map of alarms at the power station
Futuristic control panels
Futuristic control panels
Futuristic control panels
Control
Gauges
Emergency phone
Turbine room controls
Control room
Alarm panel
Guages
Control station 2
Control station 3
Control station 3
Control station TV
Control room
Graphs
This way to control room
Active power
Active power grids
Active power grids
Active power grids
Time to go
Inhospitable
Filmed in late 2011- this was the final days of the old Hawera Hospital (1925-2012). Demolition was already well underway on the South Taranaki Hospital, with at least half the complex already gone. A compact digital camera was rigged onto the hot-shoe of a DSLR to capture on video the state the place and what was being photographed- plenty of shaky camera footage ensued. Abandoned in 2002, the hospital’s state of decline over the next decade was dramatic and completely unnecessary. It wasn’t a pretty explore- a bleak and hazardous environment, the complete opposite of what a hospital is supposed to be about- inhospitable.
Aramoana
Situated high above the town, with great views overlooking the sea is the woman’s ward of this old hospital. It is extremely eerie walking around the old wards, now sealed shut with corrugated iron. The whole hospital site was closed due to earthquake risk and awaits demolition in the near future. More to come of the rest of the hospital soon.
Cooler
Exploring the labyrinthian maze of a former cool store complex…
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’.
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.
Fertiliser Tower
After walking into this fertiliser storage tower we quickly noticed something very wrong, hundreds of dead birds coating the floors. We’re not sure if it was the fertiliser or being trapped which entombed them in the building, but didn’t care to stay and find out.
Chiller
Exploring the ruins of a former coolstore in Patea, 3 hours north of Wellington…
U R B E X C E N T R A L 