Of Gertrude and Charlotte and Tutu the Gardener

In the middle of winter 2013 a group describing themselves as Auckland Spirit Chasers spent two nights in the Stone Store in Kerikeri and the adjacent Kemp House, two of the oldest buildings in the country. They were armed with cameras including a night-shot video camera, what they term a K2 Meter (to measure fluctuations in a magnetic field) and a device called a spirit box which uses radio frequency for the same aim. And they had a torch because, well, even ghost busters need to see in the dark.

Apart from an 'uneasy' feeling and the coldness they felt they concluded they could not say definitively the store was haunted but as Vicki Wedd describes, Kemp House was quite different.

"We heard footsteps upstairs, we all heard a banging voice and the lights were flashing crazily on the K2 meter which we'd never experienced before.Two of the team felt tugging, like a child holding on as a parent walks away, and through the spirit box we asked if Gertrude was with us and got the reply 'hello'. So with all these strange occurrences and the sudden drops in temperature we believe Kemp House is haunted."

They are not alone. Five years ago the NZ Herald carried a story of a security guard sitting in his car in the car park across the road who reported seeing an elderly person in the middle dormer window. He thought there was someone trapped inside but since the store was alarmed, he couldn't understand how they were there without being detected. He was sufficiently concerned to phone his boss but the vision had disappeared by the time the manager arrived.

It's similar to the experience of Sarah Stephens from Australia whose husband took a digital photograph showing what they thought could be a ghostly presence standing at the central dormer window. The man appeared to be wearing a white shirt and she thought there was a smaller face to the right of him. The speculation centered on Tamihana 'Tutu' Maitarahanga, the gardener who spent nearly a lifetime at the Mission Station and he is still close by. He died in 1903 and his remains are buried near St James' Church over the road. Liz Bigwood, Historic Places' Trust Manager at the Stone Store and Kemp House says the kaitiaki is still very protective of his patch.

"He used to live in a little cottage on the site and of all the 'sightings' we have around here he is the most active, or vocal, which is wonderful because he was mute when he was alive and here he is 'talking' more than he ever did!"

It can get physical. There were suggestions Tutu had something to do with the seemingly spontaneous dislodging of two large rocks just a few months ago. It took two men to lift them back into place. Over in Kemp House it can also get physical, as one tour guide discovered as she was talking to a group of 25 visitors.

"I was discussing the Kemps and said I have to thank Charlotte and Gertrude for keeping the house the way it is and added it was no wonder Gertrude never married with a name like that.

"All the alarms upstairs suddenly went off, all three of them, and they are armed individually. I had to go upstairs, turn them off and apologise to Gertrude."

Several years ago, a visitor described as 'ashen' reported to Stone Store staff they had just been up the hill to the Kororipo Pa and had seen a naked, tattooed Maori man literally disappearing into the bush, 'gliding into a tree' was how it was described. The visitor asked if this was normal. It probably isn't but, then, can you be certain?