While sitting in our safe office I agreed to take a Chinese journalist to Spookers on Saturday night. It turns out that this was not my smartest move as I spent the next 24 hours petrified about what was to come. The haunted attraction scream park is located in the Kingseat Hospital grounds near Karaka (so about a 50 minute drive from Auckland CBD). The grounds, which I assumed would be like the Auckland hospital grounds, weren’t at all. No one told me it was a run-down mental hospital!

Tip 1) Do your homework. Once we were safely in the main reception area – avoiding the girl with blood dripping from her head – I started to relax.
Tip 2) never let your guard down while at Spookers, you never know who is about to scare or touch you.

If I had to pick the scariest moment in the house, it was being chased into a pitch black room by a creature covered in commercial mop heads while a crazed character grabbed my legs – that was the moment that I lost ten years off my life.  I’d love to say I was tough and didn’t get scared while at Spookers but I was guilty of several naughty words and high pitch screams. But all in all Spookers was an awesome adrenalin rush and a great way to spend a Saturday night. So how are you celebrating Friday the 13^th?

By Julia - Media Advisor, Tourism New Zealand. Photos by Jian Sun.