About this time last year, I wrote of the time when my parents had a close encounter with the urban legend known as ‘The Mair Park Ghost. The original post created quite a stir, and you can read the subsequent shenanigans here:

On Saturday, my good buddy Lesmond and I decided to make a small video diary/doco about the ghost legend. What ensued was far from expected, or rehearsed. Disturbing footage follows.

Before that fateful day when I decided to write about the Mair Park Ghost, I Googled the same three words, just to see if there was any other information about it. As I suspected, nothing came up. Absolutely zero.

A couple of months have passed, the mystery has been solved (actually there is an extremely surprising twist to the tale, but I will keep it underwraps for now), and I am rather tired of all the kind folk who have come up to me and asked me if I really do read my kids ghost stories. For the record, the answer is a big fat ‘NO’.

Anyway, curiosity got the better of me tonight. I couldn’t resist the tempation, and if persuaded by some unseen force (not), I typed in those three mysterious words once again “Mair Park Ghost”.

Oh no. I discover that I am destined to be forever posted all over the net on bizarre websites, known as ‘The Kiwi Pastor Who Hunts Mair Ghost’. (Sheesh)

Yes indeed, the ghost has had its revenge… for now anyway.

I know you are thinking about it… Three words ‘Mair Park Ghost’… I dare you.

Read it here: Mair Park Ghost Mystery.

In July 1961, an entity known as the ‘Mair Park Ghost’ terrified the citizens of small town Whangarei, New Zealand. I know… because my parents were some of those terrified citizens.

Bizarre events rarely happen in Whangarei, so when stories started circulating that a ghost was being sighted at Mair Park, my mum, dad and their friends did what any normal, sane kiwi would do… they attempted to catch it.

They drove to the park, turned the car engine and headlights off, and waited in the almost pitch-black darkness (with the doors locked of course). Sure enough, it wasn’t too long before the ghostly figure emmerged and ‘glided’ slowly closer to the car. My parents describe the ghost as being almost 7 foot, all white, who moved in a very frightening manner. As they watched, literally scared-stiff, my dad’s two mates started chasing it into the dark, dense bush (I would have run the other way myself). After several minutes, they returned, terrified, saying that the ghost seemed to float down the track, made no sound while doing so, and then simply disappeared.

I kid you not… this is a true story. I even have the newspaper clippings.

In the days that followed, more people sighted and were equally disturbed by the ghost. Other attempts were made to catch it, but all failed. More bizarre events happened… a grotesque mannequin was found hanging by a noose from a tree in the park, and the ghost was seen peering into the windows of some of the houses close to the park late at night.

Was the mystery of the Mair Park Ghost ever solved? Well, that depends on who you talk to. My dad says that the ghost simply stopped being sighted, probably because people started to enter the park at night with guns intending to shoot it.

I was talking to another person recently, who remembers the events. He thought that a local rugby team entered the park one night and caught the ghost, who was in fact, a very athletic man wearing a very convincing costume. This man knew the layout of the park so well that he knew where to run and hide in the darkness, giving the appearance of disappearing into thin air.

I like my dad’s story of ‘men with guns hunting the ghost’ better.

So, almost fifty years on, I wonder if you were to venture into the park late at night… would the ghost be there… watching you from the bushes?

I dare you to find out.