Napier Prison, built in 1862 on Bluff Hill above the Hawke's Bay settlement of Napier, is the oldest surviving prison in New Zealand and is widely considered the most haunted building in the country. Closed in 1993 after 131 years of operation, it housed a succession of increasingly dangerous populations — petty criminals, political prisoners, the criminally insane, and finally Hawke's Bay's worst violent offenders — and was the site of New Zealand's last executions by hanging in 1912. At least seven prisoners were executed there, and hundreds more died of illness, violence, and suicide inside the walls.
The building's paranormal activity is catalogued in an unusually detailed register maintained by its current owner, who operates the prison as a guided-tour attraction. Specific hotspots include the punishment cells in Section C, where inmates were confined in total darkness for weeks; the Women's Wing, haunted by 'Frances,' an 1880s prisoner who hanged herself in her cell; the hanging yard, where visitors report sudden temperature drops and the impression of being choked; and the prison morgue, still containing an original autopsy table. The 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake — which killed 256 people across the bay — destroyed portions of the prison and reportedly opened what staff describe as a 'permanent thin place' in the east wing.
Independent paranormal investigation at Napier Prison by the Australasian Society for Paranormal Research and the New Zealand Paranormal Association has documented more than 1,200 anomalous incidents since 2003. Ghost Adventures filmed an episode at the prison in 2019. The site's combination of authenticated execution history, unusually complete original architecture, and the trauma of the 1931 earthquake has given Napier Prison a concentrated ghost-report profile unmatched elsewhere in the country. Visitors on overnight stays — permitted by the prison's current operators — describe the experience as among the most unsettling in New Zealand tourism.