By DONNA KERR in Rotorua
Dave Kiel knows what he saw.
He wrote it in his diary: "Saw wispy image of two people on viewing platform. A man and a woman. Young. Standing by corner. They said nothing. Just looked at me and disappeared."
Mr Kiel, 51,
is a construction foreman and was overseeing a renovation in the afternoon at the Rotorua Museum of Art and History when the ghosts appeared.
He was alone on the roof exposing the original timber work and had paused to pick up his level.
"I turned around and there were these two people standing right beside the hole I had just opened. They just sort of looked at me as if to say 'what are you doing?'. I blinked just to make sure I was seeing what I was seeing. Then they faded away in front of me."
Mr Kiel said it lasted about four seconds.
The couple were dressed in Edwardian costumes with high lace collars.
"They were aged in their mid-20s. He was baby faced. She was very pretty, that's for sure."
Mr Kiel, who was a radio broadcaster for 10 years, said he was used to dealing with facts, not fiction.
"I know people are going to say this guy isn't the full quid but I'm not someone who hallucinates. I wasn't looking for it. I didn't anticipate it.
"Call me anything you like mate but I know what I saw."
The museum's manager of collections and programmes, Cherie Meecham, said she was not surprised and did not doubt Mr Kiel's account.
"In the past we've had visitors who have said they have seen friendly ghosts or spirits down in that wing."
She said the latest sighting would no doubt attract interest from both believers in ghosts and skeptics.
