SlackNinja.com Locations

The Boulevard

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:36:38 +0000

Matt & I jumped a fence & walked down an access ramp into the culverts, on the west side of Target Rd. With a bit of rain the day before, I was surprised to see only about 1cm of water flowing over the concrete. Heading east, we walked for about 120m in the open air, until the culvert went underground, & followed it in. The entrance was marked by graffiti & tagging, which continues most of the way through. Some guy calling himself “Dwell” seems to have been up a few of the feeder pipes off the Boulevard, & has tagged the entrances. The tunnel turns a sharp corner to the right, then continues until it hits an intersection with the inlet from the holding lake by Denny’s in Wairau park. Standing at the intersection, you can look out over the lake & see Denny’s & the furniture stores by Hoyts. The tunnel, which was previously about 1.8m high by 2.5 wide, then becomes 2m high, & about 4m wide. I could drive an SUV through here, I swear it. We then countinued along the tunnel for a few hundred metres, until we found an eel, swimming in about an inch of water. What the poor bugger was looking for, I’ve no idea, but he didn’t seem to like the lights much. After another couple hundred metres, with a couple of explorable pipes off either side, the tunnel ended in the drainage ponds by Harvey Normans, right alongside the Wairau Rd offramp. I would’ve been up along the pipes off the Boulevard, but Matt had no decent waterproof boots, & his feet were getting soggy & cold. Newbie. :) We climbed up the bank & walked back to our entry point, then climbed back in & went the other way. This way went past a residential area, turned back through the industrial zone, under a small bridge, & then eventually underground for about 20m, ending in a wall with 2 pipes joining the culvert. We chose the left pipe, which was about chest high, & went up it for another hundred metres or so, until we hit an intersection with a smaller pipe. There was a small shaft & a manhole in the intersection, so I climbed up, & popped the cover, & we came out on a lawn infront of the new office block on Ellice Rd. A pretty easy stroll all up, but still a good time.

Nui Manga

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:30:32 +0000

Not for the un-experienced drain explorer.

With the help of Mike, we managed to get into this. As per the new Sydney Cave Clan known.doc entry:
Name: Nui Manga
Other Names: Wai-Mapihi, Aro Stream
Type: Drain
Suburb: Aro Valley
Description: Massive 2-2.1m RCP running under Aro Valley and Te Aro, Wellington. Upgraded as part of the Wellington Bypass
Features: Massive RCP running under Wellington, numerous twists, turns, manhole shafts, small waterfalls.
Access: Manhole in footpath near public toilets on northern side of Aro Rd, at Aro Park, Aro Valley,
Wellington. Manhole is decorated and labeled “Storm Water”. [GPS:-41.295305,174.768196]
Care: NZ is subject to serious flooding.
Wet: Dry – Ankle
Condition: Excellent
History: This drain began it’s life in 1926 when the Aro Stream which flowed down Epuni Street and into Aro Street was confined to a drain. Repeated flooding of the area and Wellington CBD and the upgrade of the Wellington bypass began the upgrade of the tunnel from a oviform brick to 2m RCP .
To Do: Continue past Taranaki St. This should join the new Wellington Stormwater Main which is even bigger. I could not continue due to uncertain weather. Pop more manholes further downstream.
Notes: Nui Manga is Māori for “Big Stream”.
Rating: 7-Very Good
Listed: 2008 Trioxide
Updated: 19/04/2008

Palmers Head Observation Point

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:21:37 +0000

With some time to burn in Wellington, I drove out to this place. Nice view of the airport and passing aircraft. Also a nice example of a cool WW2 obs point. Apparently there is some underground stuff near here, but with limited time I couldn’t find it.

Fort Ballance

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 04:06:14 +0000

Having a day or so in Wellington I went to check this thing out. It’s a really nice example of a WW2 fort. Multiple gun circles, stair cases, ladders and some underground sections.

Todo: For the most hardcore explorers there is a second underground section which seems sealed by a concrete slab. An unfortunate addition which could be removed with some hard work.

Rata Street (Bank Vault Under House)

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 04:41:45 +0000

I remember hearing about this mysterious house a few years ago from a local man, although no address or description was given. Then, a couple of months ago, it appeared in the newspaper, which mentioned the street name and the fact that the house now lay abandoned as authorities searched for the owners. Also mentioned was the fact that the top floor had been burned – made it kinda easy to spot!

After visiting a site up the road for work, I stopped in and had a nosey, I only had the work (crappy) camera on me at the time – excuse the quality would ya?

The guts is: A large (80 square foot) vault was built into the side of the hill in the farmland of Naenae, Wellington in the 1940s. A house was then built around the vault to conceal it. The country’s money reserves were held in the vault while the government became paranoid of Japanese invasion in an attempt to keep it from them. The house was later sold to private owners, and sold twice more, before being left abandoned – ripe pickings for vandalism and squatters. Inside, the fridge, stove, telly and lots of other comforts still remain, although all have now been upturned and trashed. The entire top floor is burnt.

Incidently, if anyones looking for a ‘doer-upper’ or a well used first home, this place is for sale.

(yes, it’s still locked)

Hokitika Lunatic Asylum

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:13:50 +0000

Tangy bought a BJ40 landcruiser from some joker up in Motueka, after about 4hrs of planning we had our tickets and were on a plane flying to Nelson airport.

We had planned on doing a double-banger and going to check out Ngawhatu Psychiatric in Stoke but unfortunately the ‘cruiser needed a spot of maintenance before she was ready for the trip. As usual the repairs wound up taking more time than we expected so we decided just to push for the west-coast and the rumoured asylum that was somewhere in Hokitika.

Found the place almost immediately upon arriving, its on the northern outskirts of town – look for a wee stormwater ditch thats called ‘Seaview Creek’ then turn in from the coast the first chance you get and you should find it without too much trouble.

Place is VERY active, with what I’m starting to think is the norm for abandoned mental asylums in NZ: people living in the old buildings. That said, there is still a large number of buildings that are uninhabited, some in better condition that others.

The campus is pretty large, almost like a small village; with roads, footpaths and random lampposts sprouting out of the marshy ground in the areas where the venerable west-coast bush has begun to reclaim the property.

I’m pretty sure our arrival was of significant interest to the locals: it seemed as though there was a WHOLE heap of traffic soon after we turned up and starting looking around, with the same cars doing laps around the roads and a number of people slowing down to gawk at us.

Undeterred by the vigilante security force, we began poking around the place, starting with a walk around the property, trying to get an idea of which buildings were what etc. The secure ward, which had a small yard surrounded by a 10ft-high inwards-facing fence attached to it, looked like it was in the process of being cleaned and restored, which sucked cos I was hanging out for some padded room action :(

We levelled our sights upon the Weka ‘Villa’ that is situated towards the rear of the campus – it looked suitably derelict with the odd broken and boarded up window, flaking paint and the other usual signs of building neglect. We parked the truck out of sight around the back of the building and went for a look around. Inside was pretty cool as there is a fair bit of old equipment left lying around (but no electroshock machines D:), however it was bloody stressful as the locals persisted in driving around the roads outside, making us very conscious of being seen in the windows and of the noise we were making as we explored the place. At one stage I heard a vehicle pull up fast outside around the back of the building, right by where we’d stashed the truck; the door opened, someone jumped out and the door was slammed violently – I thought we were in for it.

We moved as quickly and quietly as we could to the other side of the building and sat tight, silently shitting our pants. After a wee bit we decided that if whoever was outside intended on coming into the building, they would have done so by now; I went back and snapped a shot of some bathtubs and then we high-tailed it out of there. Once outside we noticed that there was a guy in a ute parked right up next to the building, just sitting there. We snuck around the back and got into our truck without him seeing us then casually drove past him and gave him a wave, to which he responded with a small nod and a steely gaze. We got the impression we weren’t welcome.

The other building we saw the inside of was 2-storied and looked out over the sea, which made it pretty cool to walk around in despite it having a lot more holes in it than the Weka Villa and being pretty much devoid of equipment.

Just as we were leaving we had a quick look at the largest boiler building and realised that this place has full-on walkable steam tunnels! By this time we’d spent about 5hrs looking around the campus and were getting the feeling that we’d very much outstayed our welcome, also we only had 1 torch and the light was quickly fading. We made the hard decision to pass over the tunnels this time, jumped in the truck and made tracks for the Punakaiki pub where cold Monteiths were enjoyed until closing :D

Somewhere in Mt Wellington..

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:29:34 +0000

Down Hugo Johnston drive in Mt Wellington, near Sylvia Park. Piggy accidently found these by taking a wrong turn off, at the very end behind a new factory. Heaps of them, along with a little abandonded house. Has like a rail way track going right through. No idea what they were used for, but theres an inside outdoor area that had a big sign aying Youth Training Centre.

Really dodgey because its gluesniffing-gangstaville. Driven up to them heaps but always been dodgey cats around, and one time even a fire in one of the freights.

Heaps of abandoned trucks and tractors.

Stopped on the way from east to west because it looked like there were no bums or anything around, snapped a few before we saw two geezers that I think saw me , so we gapped. =)

Colour Deep

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:15:21 +0000

At the end of the street is a scummy little storm-water creek, which pretty much runs underground for probably… Maybe 800? Its hard to tell.

Since I first went there the walls at the entrance and exit have been covered in graffiti, but its mostly good quality stuff.

Most of the tunnel is PITCH BLACK , but its safe to walk down without a torch- nothing to bang your head on or anything. I highly reccommend you do try this, especially if its your first time there, its incredible feeling, absolute darkness- you keep expecting to walk into something but there is nothing there, and your brain spazzes out…

There is ONE offshoot- a little ladder inset in the wall, which goes up to a platform/small concrete pipe… That pipe is big enough to easily crawl down and you can just manage to turn around within it, but its kinda small.

That leads to a natural rock chamber, another pipe, (with manhole above thats easy to miss)another natural rock chamber, another pipe… and thats as far as ive been, and im not sure there is much more, it was getting damper and dirtier and I was alone at least 15minutes from fresh air so i turned around.

Ill post up more photos soon, this is all i have right now.

Its a fun tunnel, i like walking with music in my ears to complete the sensory deprivation during the long parts of the main tunnel :)Added bonus of a graffiti art gallery at either end.

Ngawhatu physciactric hospital

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:26:17 +0000

Was around this area and decided to check it out. Had a real old map that showed every building / road that used to exist starting from montebello Ave. From montebello all the way down Sunningdale Drive Buidlings are no longer standing. Even after sunningdale drive ends you can still stay on the road, as you can see on googlemaps lots of buildings used to be here. recently they have been demolished. The road is lined with hundreds of palm trees, and is located in a nice quite valley. Where montebello ave ends on the maps it continues for ages, some buildings still stand. Would be good to walk further around, didnt have time. This place is still used for something, i have no idea what. The pool has fresh water and power to it, a nice new bbq area has been added to the pool complex. Random people were walking around with backpacks on. Alot of old people were driving up and down in cars. with the gates closed at both ends. Was strange. I left due to People walking around. Would be interesting to walk a little further around where the more secure units used to be. Dont go Maori styles with no shoes. And possibly explore with another ninja. Id go to this location soon before the lot gets the smack down.

Cracroft Water Towers

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:44:44 +0000

For varieties sake I added this.

Piece of piss to get into the compound, just a matter of jumping a busted fence, even getting on top of the towers isn’t much of a challenge for uber-pro-super-stealth-ninja-masters or a cunt with a rope.

These dated photos are from when my dickhead mates and I went in there making a fuck tonne of noise shooting up each other with bb guns a couple of years ago. It didn’t really occur to me that I was trespassing, we were there solely for the bb war, that is why the images feature my mates mostly, not the towers.

Still not a bad view from the top.

Early 2007 covert_one and I went back there and observed some minor construction activity. The towers, however and the means of access are virtually unchanged from the ones pictures. I found a Mercator knife at the site too. Always a bonus when you acquire a little loot.

Glen Ruther Farmhouse

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:07:28 +0000

Me and my younger brother where enjoying a casual bike ride on a hot Brisbane afternoon, down an overgrown cow track when we came across this house which was concealed by shrubbery.

Upon closer inspection it appeared that the house windows and doors had been removed or destroyed and what was left of the contents of the house had been strewn across the floor which is carpeted in bird shit.

The photos where snapped of my cell and don’t do justice, however photos never usually do.

Cathedral Junction

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 01:12:37 +0000

Climbed up this crane the other night – had really hoped to get right to the top but theres a locked gate thats maybe 2/3s of the way up that stops you going any higher. If you were really fucking keen you could bridge across from the crane structure onto the open floor of the half-constructed building.

Almost ran into the garbage man coming back down.

Crack Head Palace

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:10:37 +0000

*named by Warlust.

Now is scafolded up but used to just consist of broken windows and possibly bums.

Warlust and Orchids misc adventure began when Warlust climbed up the pole and jumped in through a window, while Orchid is caught in an awkward conversation with what seemed like a gllue sniffing bum but he thought it would be fun to join the adventure. So he did. He scaled up first and actully, kindly, showed me how to get up the scaffolding. Random black bum guy asked if there were any diamonds in inside, I said no, so he left. Anyway, place is hardout in the process of doing up or its been forgotten about and is going to be pulled down, who knows.

Basement was pretty mean but we both didnt have a torch. Attic had apparantly been taken down.

Place probably wont be around for long.

VicPark Derelict Kindergarten

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:57:17 +0000

Completly fenced up but would be easy to scale. Been sitting there fenced up and decaying for as long as I can remember. This is a “to be continued” experience. Once fence is scaled and exploration occurs on the inside, then experience will be complete. But for now I will just put up the photos I got when we were checking out how to get in. On a very busy main road in the middle of Auckland City which will make the exploration harder, but exciting. WAHOO . This place is pretty much begging to be scoped out.

1890's Kau Point Battery (Underground Army Fort)

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:32:11 +0000

Always looking for interesting places to take photos I, and a fellow photographer, came across word that there was ‘some-old-fort’ near the tip of Miramar Peninsular, in Wellington that consisted of underground tunnels rooms etc etc.

It HAD to be done! It needed to be found.

After following some rough directions we found our selves at the top of a hill in a small opening in a pine forrest. There was nothing there, and I was puffed (big hill), what a let down.

We walked around for a bit and then came across a small opening in the ground, it looked tight, and it spiraled DOWN , into darkness! (It’s underground because it was covered up several decades ago but has been reopened by the weather)

We crawled though the entrance and made our way down into the blackness, expecting to find a dead body or something to that effect! Thank god there was none.

The place is quite large consisting of 2 big rooms, 2 small rooms, some very tight corridors, and a filled in gun pit. The roof had wells with hooks centered in them presumably to hold lanterns (it IS from the 1890’s). And doorways were signed in an OLD font with interesting looking illustrative symbols (can’t quite think what they’re called…). The place was built out of half & half brick & concrete, with a weird black soot covering the walls.

Its an interesting place. Well worth trying to find.

There is a small article on it here: http://www.geocities.com/kelburn.geo/kaupoint.html

There are also other forts on that peninsula, one BIG one that is on army (airforce?) land, and a few other ones that have had little exploration. I’ll be paying them a visit later this year.

NorthHead

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:36:37 +0000

Just some pictures of my little adventure over to NorthHead with piggy. Coastal and military fortifications erected during the 1800s and used during the Russian Scare in 1885 [though these bunkers and forts are not as awesome as Fort Jervois =P] and WWII . Heaps of underground tunnels and storage rooms. Many are unlit so camera flash came in handy. Snapped a few pics of gun holding placements.

Patea Meat Works

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 02:52:22 +0000

Explored Patea’s abandoned meat works before they burnt down the other day. (!)

Entrance was at the end of a dodgy residential street, so we took a riverside detour, and hopped a couple of fences. No security at all! The only concern was the rumor that the place housed a ‘P’ lab, so was on the lookout for unfriendly gangster types.

The place is huge. We split up to explore the vast buildings with multi levels, bridges and crazy ‘skin lifter’ conveyer belts. It seems that most of the buildings have had their steel frames removed, so some were leading at crazy 45 degree angles, which made for mad corridors, and scary upstairs levels! Lots of asbestos sheets around mad for some carefull footsteps, and the skin curing rooms had a dodgy chemical smell, with some big rusty barrels lying around.

Also explored the Western building next to the river with delelict train station, an abandoned warf, and doors that opened to 40 foot drops. Mad!

Lynfield/Waikowhai

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 11:06:07 +0000

Just a pretty cool concrete structure that was maybe changing rooms once upon a time but as kids we would say it was once a prison cell. Just sits there all alone in the waikowhai park with no purpose.

stable kaikoura

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 05:41:31 +0000

well, this is semi abandoned. it is a historic stable, along with a house. (see picture of sign that is outside). i stopped of here on my way north from Christchurch for lunch and it is right next to a back packers on the main drag. the house is still lived in and maintained, and this stable is right next door, falling to bits and with spectacularly over grown surroundings. you are on private property to get a look at it, but it is wide open with no fences.

re located timber yard. napier

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 05:09:24 +0000

the picked up the whole thing from another area and were storing it here for about a year (according to my mother who was driving me around) it was gone the next week, i was lucky enough to catch it when i was “back home”. it is on a very busy street next to some car yards that had heaps of Saturday shoppers in it so i didn’t jump the fence.