Rawaka venue 'was haunted'

By CATHERINE MASTERS and JOHN STOKES

A former owner of the old Fisherman's Wharf in Northcote is not surprised Suzanne Paul's Maori village venture has gone bust. She says the venue is haunted and cursed.

Others say the cause of Rawaka's demise is more likely to be its location, nestled under the Auckland Harbour Bridge, and a public perception that it's too hard to get to.

But Barbara Doyle and daughter Libby Daniels say strange things have happened there, including suicides. No one has succeeded in making money at Fisherman's Wharf since it was first built and opened by restaurateur Bob Sell in 1971.

Mrs Doyle said she was bankrupted after opening Doyles restaurant there in 2000. Better known for running murder mystery weekends at the Brian Boru pub in Thames, she said she had to sell that pub and other property after being financially gutted by Fisherman's Wharf.

The venue is "cursed", she says.

One day she saw a young man park his car metres away from the building and throw himself to his death off the nearby cliff.

Her daughter, Ms Daniels, who lived in the building for six months, said she felt the presence of spirits inside.

She later found out a young man had hanged himself in the building.

"At night time if you came up into the main part and got a drink out of the bar, you'd think, 'Get the hell out of there, really quickly'.

"The place is haunted, it really is."

Ngati Whatua kaumatua Grant Hawke said many tribal groups prized the area because of its plentiful seafood, and its original inhabitants, Ngati Tai, endured severe casualties through raids by Ngati Poa and Ngati Whatua.

Bob Sell told the Weekend Herald he battled for five years to get consent to build and when he opened the restaurant it boomed.

He sold it two years later but it started to experience difficulties and a string of further owners failed to turn a profit.

Suzanne Paul, who courted the media before opening the village, would not speak to the Weekend Herald. Her plush Glendowie home is said to be on the market.

Rawaka itself has an air of abandonment.

It is locked up and a liquidation notice is on the door.