Wellington, New Zealand (AP) – A veiled woman bursts screaming with an elevator. The little crowd gathered in a basement corridor of the New Zealand parliament nervously recovered.
Their guide, wearing a dragging white dress, smiles gently. “You are invited to take the elevator,” she said. No one did.
The mysterious deaths, unexplained noises and end -of -evening appearances are not the usual fodder of daily visits offered to Parliament buildings in Wellington. After hours of play Thursday, however, guides put on the costume of the Victorian era to delight visitors with the less salty history of the constituency – “mainly stories” of real tragedy and paranormal tradition that have developed among the members of the political staff during the decades of colorful narrative.
The history of the majestic Gothic terminal of Parliament is particularly rich in unhappy. Built at the end of the 19th century and feared by some of the security guards and parliament cleaners, it survived two fires, a flood and being exceeded by wild cats.
“It's your last chance to go back,” said Lisa Brand, her disgusting face of false blood, told the group that had arrived for Thursday's tour – a recent initiative and an adopted by the staff of the visitors with enthusiasm.
By browsing a cavernous parliamentary atrium, the guide let out a styling cry that resonated at the open windows from the legislative offices. He explained why so-called frightening visits are reserved for weeks when parliament is not in session.
A Gothic and colorful past
The parliament library is a dark and decorated building where the stained glass windows and the crystal chandeliers are weakly revealed wrought iron bankers and a Venetian decoration. Designed by Thomas Turnbull and completed in 1899, it remains used by staff looking for information or a slightly strange peace and calm.
When the visitors arrived on Thursday, they were greeted by spectral figures that shouted as they slipped stairs under the portraits of former chief librarians and New Zealand ministers. The tourist guides told an stifled audience that the library was in danger by a wild storm which struck Wellington in 1968 – flowing a passenger ferry in the port with the death of 53 people.
The storm also struck the Parliament, tearing the lights from light and inciting the librarians to climb on the roof while they were trying to protect the books, according to a guide that wore victorian costumes and dark shadows before his eyes.
“For mysterious and unknown reasons, they did so in underwear,” she told visitors. “There seems to be a story of people who lose their pants here in this parliament.”
The guide added, with Reave: “I didn't even start on politicians.”
A tragic death and a stolen skull
Finally, the tour also turned to the legislators. Well known in New Zealand is the story of William Larnach, a politician who, in 1898, was found dead in a play in Parliament with a revolver in hand while experiencing financial and family conflicts.
The ghost of Larnach, according to some, remains in the building. His skull, however, was stolen – and in 1972 was rediscovered in a student's room.
Another spirit reported to Linger is that of the first full -time librarian, Ewen McColl, whose death was partly attributed by certain official sources to overwork.
Creed from the basement
While the visit descended in the basement of the building, the ceilings lowered themselves and the corridors shrink. FRANTIC FRACING sounds in a apparently locked room.
The underground floors house an archive containing the history and the esoteric. It is also the site of some of the strangest events in the building, according to tourist guides.
The urban legends transmitted by the staff include stories of hands tending to the batteries, songs emanating from empty bathrooms, the appearance of a ghostly woman in a mirror and locked doors swing. More terrestrial horrors included a cat and subsequent chips, infestation in 1977.
More scary than expected
After a last fear, visitors emerged slightly shaken in the almost empty hall of the Parliament while the darkness fell. The tour was “a little more frightening than what I expected,” said Holly Masters, who had visited Parliament for the last time as a child. “There were a lot of deaths here that I did not expect to discover.”
Another visitor, Sally Giles, said that she was fascinated to learn the stories of those who worked and died in the enclosure “and what they have left and how it surfaces from time to time.”
The tourist guides would return to their regular and authorized scripts on Friday tours – but some said that the frightening side of the building was never far away.
“I always open the tour of the tour in the morning,” said Brand, the team leader. “It always feels a little tingling when you are one of the first people walking.”
