Masters Hall
July 2022
The team were invited to investigate what was once Pahiatua Hospital. This is now known as Masters Hall and is an accommodation and events centre. Pahiatua Hospital was bulit in 1902 with additions of further wards and buildings in 1940 and the 1960's. The accommodation buildings still retain some of the old hospital features such as light fittings and call switches and there is no mistaking the fact you are within a hospital! There are 2 wards remaining as well as the Nurses building and the owners of the location reside in the oldest part of the hospital having made it into a very comfortable and gorgeous home. The buildings are very well maintained and the interior was spotlessly clean right throughout.
You can read the history on this location and it's alleged hauntings on our Haunted NZ pages.
There have been numerous mumerings over the decades of this location being haunted. I spoke with someone who stayed there for a period of 6 months whilst they were buying another property and he had some strange experiences whilst staying there. He related a story to me about some contractors staying there who left the building in the middle of thee night opting to sleep in their cars after seeing an elderly lady in a floral dress floating down the corridor. The current owners had the whole place blessed when they took over and have reported no disturbances since. Although the prior to them taking over, they stayed the weekend with their son who has an experience. He woke up at about 6am and wandered down the corridor to get a glass a water from the kitchen, He clearly heard talking and a child giggling. He then heard a trolley being wheeled along and just assumed it was the cleaner and she had brought her son to work with her. On further inspection of the building, he found no one within it. No cleaner, no son. There were only himself and both of his parents staying on the premises at the time.
The Investigation
This was a very large location so Quantum decided to invite Paranormal Researchers, Central Hawkes Bay Paranormal Society and Natasha from Paranormal Pals Podcast, along for a collaborative investigation. When we arrived, Stephen and Korie from CHB Paranormal were already there so they showed us around Ward 1 which we would be staying in. This was a relatively small ward with a circular hallway with about 8 rooms, a shower and toilet block, a kitchen and a lounge coming off it. We chose our rooms, unloaded the car and set about organising our stay for the next 48 hours. Next to arrive was Suzie from Quantum along with Pepper from our K9 unit so we got them settled and chilled out for about 30 minutes before the owners arrived to give us a tour of the facility and grounds. We went through the double doors at the end of our ward and were absolutely astounded at how long the corridor was - so long we couldn't even see where it ended from where we were standing! The owners took us down the Ward 1 main corridor and into all the rooms coming off that before hitting Ward 2, those rooms and then the Nurses building. These were all connected via long corridors with interconnecting hallways. In Ward 2 our K9 unit alerted her handler to Room 6. Pepper had not alerted to anything during the whole tour and yet when she walked past Room 6, she balked. She went to walk in and then backed out immediately. Suzie noted this and after a time we decided to take her back down there. She walked into it fine - no alerting - no balking - no backing out. She did not display this behaviour prior to this in any location nor after this. Next we were shown the Morgue and went into the underground maintenance tunnels that run the length of the hospital corridors. Lastly, we were priviliged enough to get a tour of the owners reside, which is the main building built in 1902 and it is just stunning inside. Not long after the tour, the reminder of the investigators turned up and we unloaded their car and headed out for dinner.
We had previously decided to use the dining hall off the Ward 1 corridor, as our base for the evening so set about transferring all our equipment and suticases down to that part of the hospital. It was a bitterly cold night and about 2 degress when we started investigating at about 8.30pm. From memory, the temperature dropped throughout the night to about minus 2!!! We splilt up into teams and began investigating with 1 group investigating Ward 2, another the grounds and the Morgue and another at the end of the Ward 1 corridor. Throughout the night we swapped into different area's and continued with our investigation. 2 investigators were doing an EVP session at the end of the Ward 1 corridor and when asking for a sound to be made by anyone that may be present, they heard 2 clear knocks which seemed to come from near the person asking the question. The other investigator repeated this and both investigators heard another 2 clear knocks, again from nea the person asking the question. This was rigourously investigated to see if there was anything nearby that could have made such a sound but there wasn't. No heating systems were on and there were no other investigators anywhere near them. At the beginning of the night Ward 2 threw up a few anomalous EMF readings which quickly dimished and upon inspecting walls and flooring for wiring etc, nothing of any note was discovered. Temperature readings also dropped by 2 degrees in the same area only for them to go back up upon moving forward without any explanation. Returning to the spot to see if maybe drafts were present, resulted in the temperature remaining static at 10.1 degrees. No changes. No reasons for either anomalous readings were discovered.
At some point during the late evening the temperature dropped to 2 degress and the early hours of the morning saw it drop further to -2 degrees. We called it shortly afterwards as tiredness from the long drive and the bitter cold began to take over so we all headed to our beds for the night. While Sptehen was adamant he was sleeping in the morgue, the bitterness of the evening made him change his mind, but Ian spent the night in the operating theatre and recovery room which now has the wall removed between the two initially, seperate rooms. In the morning Quantum reviewed their audio footage and the knocks heard the previous night were indeed captured by our Tascam recorder. What these knocks were, has not been able to be ascertained. We undertook a thorough debunking process at the time but there was nothing in the vincinity that could be attibuted to making these sounds. Nor was there any other investigators present in our Ward with 1 group far away in Ward 2 and the other group outside in the Morgue. Also note that these knocks occurred near the investigator asking the questions.
After reviewing our audio in the morning, we continued to photographically document the location during daylight and the investigtors that had not been in the underground tunnels, ventured in there exploring the passageways. Natasha noted the amount of electrical cabling and routers that ran the length of the corridors and this clearly explained why a piece of Barbara's equipment was constantly glitching in a particular spot within the hospital. Other investigators roamed the rooms and corridors and conducted further EVP sessions during the daylight hours with some just leaving recorders running. That evening saw us head out for a fantastic meal at the local Indian restaurant.
We returned to begin another full on night of investigating minus our colleagues Stephen and Korie from CHB Paranormal and Suzie and Pepper from the Quantum Foundation which left us with 5 investigators. At one stage, 4 of us concentrated on investigating the Nurses building whilst conducting some era cue experiments, running EVP sessions and blanketting the various area's with video camera's. We retired relatively early on the 2nd night (well, early for investigators!) and the morning saw us packing up our cars, taking last minute photos with Ian getting some daylight drone footage, and debriefing the owners about our investigation. An invite to return has been extended to us although we will make sure we do this in during the summer months next time!! The next 6 weeks will see us thoroughly reviewing our footage to see if we managed to capture any visual anomalies and various people still have audio footage to review. We will definitely update this page with further information should anything come to light.
Personal Experiences
There were a few personal experiences to be had during our time at Masters Hall.
On the 1st evening whilst conducting an EVP session in the Ward 1 corridor, two investigators looked at the beginning of the corridor where the doors were to our accommodation, and noticed how the darkness had changed to a misty, grey like fog which pretty much took up the whole space. They both confirmed to each other what they were seeing and it had completely vanished only a minute or so later. This is the same time when the knocks were captured on audio. Upon telling the rest of the team towards the end of the night, a few investigators tried to debunk this. They explained that they thought it was light shining through from our accommodation area, however the investigators who witnessed it (Lois and Tracey) had already attempted to debunk it and exclaimed there was no light on in our accommodation area at the time and there were no windows in that area either, which eliminated any light shining through from an outside source. The area had been in total darkness only seconds before seeing the mist and there was no one present with them in the hallway or in our accommodation area (they would have to have walked past them to get access to it as the front door was locked), as all investigators were either outside to the rear of the building or way up in Ward 2 of the building. This currently remains unexplained but on returning home, Tracey was sent a photo by someone who had previously visited the location. This photo was of the exact same area where Lois and Tracey had seen the 'fog/mist'. Without knowing this, the individual who sent the photo reported that her son had seen something similar which he described as 'a big bastard' in that same area.
The next morning at about 7.30am Barbara got up to go get some milk for her morning coffee. This was down in the dining hall, having been left there from the night before and to get to the dining hall she had to walk down the same corridor Tracey and Lois had seen the mist just the night before. As she was walking back looking down at her coffee cup, she looked up just as she stepped straight into a mist. It promptly vanished.
Lois heard heavy breathing near the operating theatre although nothing was captured on the audio recorder which was nearby and also heard footsteps following her in the tunnel when she went down there alone during the day. When asked, all investigators that ventured in there have stated it was not echoey or they do not remember it being echoey (which as investigators, they would have made a mental note of that fact). Lois also saw a further mist in the Nurses building that flashed past really quickly.
Korie rather hastily left the toilet in Ward 1 where we were staying, saying he did not feel alone whilst in there. Tracey, within 5 minutes of arriving mentioned she was a 'tad creeped out' by those same toilets.
Please note: While our organisation finds personal experiences of interest, it is our view that personal experiences alone do not constitude proof or evidence of paranormal phenomena.
Investigation Status: Ongoing