In Pakuranga

It has been two years since I heard this account, but it still sends a shiver of terror down my spine when I think of it. It was told to me with such conviction and gravity.

I hope my puny effort to reproduce my nephew's words can convey his feelings.

The weekend before we left New Zealand, our nephew George, came to his dad's house to say goodbye to us. We were all sitting in the lounge chatting, when the subject of creepy houses and weird occurrences came up. Most of the following occurrences were confirmed by my brother, Rob.

In the early years, shortly after emigrating to New Zealand (from South Africa), my brother bought a double-storied house in Pakuranga for his family of five. This is where these experiences occurred. The family no longer lives there.

George, the eldest of the three children, had a very personal account of when he was about twenty years old. He was asleep, as was the rest of the household; the house was in total darkness. As usual, his door was ajar. He was startled into wakefulness by a dreadful commotion. He said the nearest thing he could compare it to was the sound of cats fighting in his room. As if this wasn't eerie enough, what followed, was downright scary.

A sensation of incredible evil started to permeate his bedroom. The temperature in the room dropped abruptly, and George was left shivering. Suddenly, his duvet started to raise. Not just a corner, or a portion, but the whole duvet all at once. He watched in trepidation as it rose about twelve inches off the bed, then plopped back down again. The frightful noise subsided, and the temperature returned to normal, leaving him badly shaken. He jumped out of bed to see if the rest of the household had been disturbed by the racket. No lights, no movement - nobody else had heard the furore. Mercifully, this only happened on one occasion.

Many times, if one of the family was alone in the house, the wooden stairs would be heard creaking. This would sound like somebody with a slow and measured tread ascending the stairs. The entity always went up; it never came down the stairs.

The family owned an old clock; the wind-up kind. This clock had not been wound for years and was used purely as an ornament. One day it chimed, much to the amazement of the whole family. Everybody in the family denied touching the clock, much less winding it. This only happened once, so this occurrence may have a natural explanation...possibly.

Regrettably, the subject of ghosts and the supernatural never came up during the times that we saw our two nieces. No stories from them, not even confirmation of George's stories, more is the pity.