Napier Prison: Scariest Place in New Zealand! – Day 261

Today we are possibly doing the creepiest activity in New Zealand. We are going to be visiting the Napier Prison.

This morning we are waking up at the Archies Bunker Backpacker and making our way toward the Napier Prison. this takes us through the beautiful napier city we’ve done a tour not so long ago about the whole art deco stuff and it’s always a pleasure to walk around.

Napier Prison is halfway up Bluff Hill and as you can expect, it’s pretty well guarded. So after we’re being let in we are getting some pretty fun photo opportunities with lots of costume. they do finger prints as well and then we’re getting onto the audio tour.

The audio tour is really cool because unlike being this really awful nasal voice that most audio tours have this is a woman talking from an echoy prison it just gives an eeries feeling to the place it’s quite awesome. One of the first spots that we’re visiting during this tour is solitary confinement. It’s probably one of the creepiest things I have ever seen in my life so obviously I am locking up Laura.

Robin! Let me out. Robin seriously let me out. This is really creepy.

Thanks for the next 15 nights of nightmaring Robin.

Anyway, moving on with our audio tour. It’s really easy to follow you just find the numbers on wall in the area you are in and then type that number into your little audio device and listen to the information about that place.

Also it’s really good to keep at your own pace as well because there’s lots of things on the walls to read.

There’s ton of those little fact sheets everywhere around the prison and honestly it’s absolutely fascinating. This one is 12 completely stupid selfies that got people arrested.

Let’s get started Laura, number 1 we have that guy right here. This burgler was caught after he took a selfie on the home owners smartphone and accidentally sent it to his victom’s contacts. Oh my God.

Seriously, you could end up spending hours reading all the information and witty articles that’s on display across all the walls.

The US. It’s one out of the 380 countries that there is in the world. They have 25% of the inmate population in the whole world.

Really?

Talk about Russion, talk about North Korea, talk about China. The US.

So after having a look around the mess hall which is where the inmates used to eat, we are then moving onto the cell blocks, which still have half of the beds hanging off the wall, there’s graffiti on the walls as well and there’s a distinct aroma of bodily fluids that have probably been there for decades.

Through our audio device we’re listening about high profile prisoners like the Maori guerrilla leader Te Kooti who lead a mass breakout from this prison to escape to the Chatham Islands. There’s also high profile drug lords like Mr Big and stories of ghosts as well which not the thing you want to hear before getting locked in a cell.

Most dangerous New Zealand prisoner.

Alright I’m going to keep on going with the tour.

No! Robin!

Can you stop locking me in prison please. You would be the most annoying guard.

Damn, locking up Laura is getting funnier every time I’m doing it.

We keep on moving with the tour still listening to the audio tour and it takes us to the Parole Room. This is the room where prisoners usually got released but now.

[wimper] The wind’s coming to get me. Can you believe that they ran that as a hostel?

I know I would be so scared to sleep in here.

Yeah nah I would never stay here – never ever.

So the Napier Prison is also running night prison tours with ghost stories and quite a few surprises along the way. that only happens about once or twice a month but if you get to napier at this time you have to do it.

And the tour finishes outside in the graveyard and also hanging yard which still features the gallows where they used to hang people. that is creepy as. But it’s an important part of New Zealand history and it was a fascinating way to actually discover it. Very interactive, very fun.