The New Zealand folks who freak out for Halloween

When Garth Peacock was growing up on a farm, Halloween wasn’t even a thing. Now, hundreds of kids queue for over an hour to get spooked at his New Plymouth haunt, the Ghosty Govett.

For the past six years, the crane mechanic has transformed his property into a full-blown Halloween experience — last year, about 1200 people came through.

“I mostly do it just for - well, it's kind of selfish - the smiling faces and the kids come out and they're all excited and all the joy they have.”

Outside, visitors pose with coffins and an electric chair before entering a cobweb tunnel, meeting Winnie the Witch, and braving two gazebos of jump scares.

This year’s showstopper: a $449 giant half-skeleton hanging from the roof. “He lights up and his eyes start going off and stuff.”

But the sudden wild weather nearly threw a wrench in the Ghosty Govett event.

“You can be up all night just stopping things that you've built all day [from falling over] and it does take a lot of commitment,” Peacock says.

“Anyone can get some decorations up - and I applaud everyone who does, I'm into that - but to do an actual, true-blue walkthrough with a scare, I take the entire week off to set up.”

Right up to the last minute, he was still building props before suiting up as a Viking to scare visitors.

“We closed up on 9.30pm, 10-ish yesterday… and you go clean up all the lolly wrappers and make sure the neighbours are happy.”

Peacock spends time all year building and repairing his own animatronics, raising funds, and rallying community support to keep it all going.

“My wife's got a rule that if it costs the family money, I'm not allowed to do it.

“Batteries are the most popular donation and lollies is the second most popular.

“I think we went through two-and-a-half cauldrons [of lollies] last night. We had 322 people coming through to the mid [level] scare.”

Even his twin daughters get in on the fun, playing the eerie twins from The Shining.

“They get quite a few comments afterwards because they don't break character and they're quite good.”

In Christchurch, Sammy Dickenson and her husband run the Thomas St Haunt in Linwood — another Halloween hotspot. Their love of horror movies and YouTube haunts during lockdown sparked the idea.

As soon as school's out, they’ve got lines at the gate. Last year, about 2200 people came through.

“It’s amazing chaos, we’ve already had a couple of drive-bys for the front yard this morning. We get mentioned – they’re like ‘oh there’s a place in Linwood that does Halloween’. It’s like yeah, we’re that Halloween house.”

Their eight-room blacked-out maze took a week to set up and almost didn’t survive this week’s stormy winds. “[It took] a lot of patience and a lot of tape,” she says.

Between decorations, materials, and about $700–$800 worth of candy, it's no small investment.

In Auckland’s Māngere Bridge, Mara Tare goes all-in too. She’s collected so many decorations over the years, she’s had to buy an extra shed.

“I’ve always loved it. I sort of see how America likes to go out and blow it up. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I wish we could do that here in New Zealand’. Then when the opportunity came, I was like ‘oh cool, okay, let’s start’.

“[The neighbourhood kids] absolutely love it. They walk past and they have a look and they'll pick their favourites and then they have a recollection of the previous year, of what was here.”

Her shopping trips for spooky décor are her “happy place,” and this year she’s dressing as an Apex Legends character.

She started 15 years ago handing out $10 treat packs, but as trick-or-treater numbers exploded, she’s had to scale back — though she still spends thousands on decorations and lollies.

“It's all about the children having fun, running around like they are right now and just enjoying it.”