When two young oount Cook Department of Conservation workers embarked on an arduous climbing expedition, they were looking for an adventure but not one of the supernatural kind.
Summer mountaineer Jane oorris and visitor centre assistant Monica Yeoman had been planning a girls-only weekend hiking and spending the night at the historic Hooker Hut in oount Cook, but nothing could have prepared them for their encounter with a local ghost.
Locals have long heard stories of an eerie presence around the remote hut and last month Jane (33) and Monica (24) became believers in the legend of the haunted hut. The sound of footsteps outside, pots clanging, the sound of someone unloading a pack, and an axe chopping wood could not be explained by any logical means. They were totally alone and say the sounds could not have been made by an animal.
Jane (33) says they had only been in bed for 15 minutes before she was startled by the unmistakeable sound of footsteps on the verandah outside. “I heard someone taking off a pack and an ice axe hitting the corrugated iron and at that stage I was suddenly wide awake. I got up and woke Monica, asking if she’d heard anything. We went outside and there was nothing there so we went back to bed.
“Five minutes later I heard a pot lid banging around and Monica whispered ‘I definitely heard that!’ “Initially I thought someone had turned up at the hut,” Monica explains. “But then I realised that wasn’t likely because it’s so isolated and it was very late – it’s a three-hour walk to get there.
“I heard the lid of a Billy rolling across the porch. It didn’t sound like an animal. We didn’t get any sleep and we were both awake when the alarm went in the morning. I wasn’t scared but I felt like I didn’t want to disturb whatever it was.
“It was a totally calm night. There was quite a very human quality about him,” Jane says. “At one point in the night I wanted to talk to him. But it wasn’t a menacing or threatening presence. It just sounded like someone who knew the place going about their business. At one point the bolt on the door was nudged. It was good having Monica there because it’s like verification of what you’re hearing – it’s not just your overactive imagination.”
When Jane returned to the hut the next day to collect some gear, she could still sense the ghostly presence. “I’ve since heard that Darby Thompson is apparently the ghost. He was a climber back in 1910 and was one of the guys who built the hut. He died in an avalanche in 1914. Some of the village residents I’ve spoken to here have had encounters with him. It sounds crazy but apparently he hangs out at the hut and sometimes comes up to the village.”
Although Jane is open-minded towards the paranormal, and Monica has always believed in ghosts, both are now convinced there are spirits who live on after people die. “I’ve never had any encounters before,” Jane says. “But I believe there is another realm out there that we cannot perceive. Until it happens to you, you are quite sceptical – but that was pretty real!”
Since that night the pair have heard plenty of strange stories from others who’ve spent the night there including a helicopter pilot and a café manager who reported paranormal experiences in and around the old hut.
“I’ve never had too much trouble believing in ghosts,” Monica says. “There is so much in the universe that we don’t even have the ability to tune in to and that doesn’t scare me. But I’ve never had it happen to me before.
“There’s definitely some kind of spirit there which isn’t quite human, but I’m happy to let it be.”
