Vulcan Hotel — the ghost of the 19th-century prostitute in Central Otago

The Vulcan Hotel in Saint Bathans, Central Otago, New Zealand, is reputedly haunted by the ghost of a 19th-century prostitute known as the Rose. Saint Bathans was a gold-mining town during the Otago Gold Rush of the 1860s, and the Vulcan Hotel served the miners and their associated industries. According to local tradition, Rose was murdered in the hotel — possibly by a client — and her body was hidden within the building. Her ghost has been reported by guests and staff for over a century. She appears as a woman in Victorian-era clothing, most often in Room 1, where she is said to have died. Guests have reported feeling the bed sheets being pulled, a cold presence lying beside them, and seeing a translucent female figure standing at the foot of the bed. The hotel, which continues to operate as a rural pub and accommodation, sits in a landscape dramatically altered by gold mining — the nearby Blue Lake was created by sluice mining and is an unnaturally vivid blue. New Zealand's ghost stories are fewer than those of older countries, making the Vulcan Hotel's long-documented haunting one of the most significant in the country.