This old hospital is still in remarkable condition and is largely free from vandalism (aside from a large number of broken/opened windows) , there are even still hospital beds in the rooms. We found an interesting surprise in one of the rooms, a petrified cat.
Category: Urbex
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.
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.
Tanked
A small fleet of abandoned flammable goods tanker wagons provided us with an adventure playground.
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
Urban Exploration versus terrorism AND McCarthyism
I noticed you referenced my website in your PDF but clearly failed to even skim the 380-page PhD living there which contradicts almost everything you’ve asserted.
What urban explorers are doing by sneaking into places is expressing deep admiration for their environment and its history. They are participatory citizens who take an active interest in their city and inspire others to playfully and creatively engage with their surroundings. They also have a strong sense of community, the very thing that makes a city safer.
Countless historical precedents show that when and if terrorists strike, they will do so pretty much out in the open, aiming to inflict maximum human casualties – an attack is as much psychological as physical. Let’s take a metro tunnel as an example, which you suggest could be targeting for “disruption of service because of access to electrical, ventilation, or signal control rooms.” Why would you study urban explorer’s photos to find a way to abseil down a ventilation shaft into an abandoned tube station to disrupt a signal? This would be incredibly time-consuming, difficult and not very effective, especially when you can walk into a train with a valid ticket and an organic peroxide–based device in a rucksack. You may remember this happened in here in the UK on the 7th July 2005 that killed 52 people.
You know what your best defence against terrorism is? A bunch of people who love their city, paying attention, with cameras. That’s a perfect description of urban explorers.
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. That is what you are propagating here. I think it might be worth taking the time to consider who is doing the “terrorising”. Using a vague threat to limit people’s right to spend their free time as they wish is unwarranted, unethical and authoritarian. Just to be clear: it’s drivel like this that is destroying the last vestiges of democracy.It’s worth considering this passage from 2003 by the explorer couple Liz and Ninjalicious which still resonates strongly today, especially in the context of your naïve overzealousness:
“Allowing the darkening threat of future terrorist attack or indeed of our increasingly scarce civil rights to deter our curiosity or intimidate us away from expressing our deep appreciation for the hidden and neglected bits of our urban landscapes would be the greatest crime of all. Continuing to support considerate exploration and questioning authority in productive, benevolent, and visible ways will allow us to represent ourselves as what we really are: people who love our cities, not those who wish to destroy them.”Dr. Bradley L. Garrett
University of Oxford
Exploration in London and Paris
Exploration in London and Paris
A substantial article by a journalist embedded in an urbex crew in London.
Urbex Party
This party was host to about 100 urban explorers in Melbourne earlier this year, the acoustics of fireworks going off in a drain is quite a lot different to what you can hear topside.
Melbourne Drains – Pt 1
During a recent trip to Melbourne a local contact was kind enough to show one of us some of the city sights less seen by tourists.
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…
Chinese Mission
This tiny old church is soon to be demolished, it is juxtaposed with the city high rises around it.
Clock Tower
As viewed from a nearby rooftop at dusk.
Sacrilegious
This iconic church has been abandoned due to earthquake risk, since the photos were taken the organ has been stripped out.
Railways
An abandoned railway building, it is full of asbestos so if you come across this one I would advise you to stay away unless you have an appropriate mask.
Aparmentalised
Recently abandoned in central wellington (to much dismay) these flats are apparently so earthquake prone that a large man falling over in one of the rooms could have initiated a serious structural failure.
Rooftopping
A pic from the field 🙂
Skate Park
An abandoned skate park in Wellington. These series of images were featured on the exellent Weburbanist last year, in a feature called “Boarded Up: 15 Rad & Gnarly Abandoned Skate Parks”. Check the article out here…
Chiller
Exploring the ruins of a former coolstore in Patea, 3 hours north of Wellington…
The Chapel – Photographs
Some photographs of this pristine gothic chapel hidden away in an abandoned building.
[Updated 2014]
The Fort
An old fort that once protected Wellington harbour from attack.
Prison/Military buildings
These structures have long been forgotten.
Underground Structures
These underground rooms are part of an old defence installation in Wellington and now seem to be mainly used as a rubbish dumping site.
Underground Bunker
Once part of Wellington’s WWII defence network, this bunker now lies neglected and half buried.
Aviation Building
This relocated building has been sitting dormant for quite some time.
The College
This school was closed in the 1980s and has been mostly left to ruin. The main building was “red stickered” last year, and like many buildings in Wellington declared “earthquake prone”. It’s more than likely the buildings will now be demolished- all the more reason to explore the site while it still remains…
U R B E X C E N T R A L 
