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Seaview Hospital , Hokitika.
Kevy Rea
ole seaview
Jake Huia Ranginui
What was this place originally?
Kevy Rea
in hokitika up the hill where hospital was
Jake Huia Ranginui
I know where it is, wondering what it was first built for. so a hospital?
Jake Huia Ranginui
Hokitika Lunatic Asylum... googled it, thought it would have been some weird place like that, always creepy but cool to visit.
Kevy Rea
i remember the mental people use to be in there few years ago
Kevy Rea
was trying to get the hokitika hospital but no go
Robbie Muir-bromley
Looks like weka i work up they for about 10 year long time ago
Raewyn Louttit
It was Seaview Mental Hospital
Helen Brennan
You should see it now
Kaza Edwards
Looks like a mental / psych hospital
Michelle Manera
Worked there to in kitchen
Brenda Barry Brown
saw it yesterday not nice
Karen Perryman
started off as a goal (jail) then turned into a psych hospital that is a picture of ruru villa for both men and woman four dorms 2 each end and a day room with balconey in the middle dinning room kitchen out the back with single rooms bathroom and small lounge area was great place to work in
Kerry Keating
I was working for a chippie doing a job there. We were putting concrete lids on a concrete trench when one of the patients walked past. One of our team asked him to help. He replied with a grin,'' i'm not here to work''.
Denis Ian Skates
Played rugby up there a few times. Some of the patients certainly were interesting spectators.
Tina Seil
Seaview
Debra Jane McCleery
my grandad had his hip operation done there & I stayed with my nana in the camping ground, meet such a lot of nice people there, nana didn't have a drivers license so we walked up to the hospital everyday until a nice local man offered to drive us up
Madeline Mcgee
Played hockey up there many a times, also use to collect the scraps for ronnies pigs very busy place back then
Helen Ruscoe
Debra Jane McCleery this is Seaview Hospital but next door to Seasview was Westland Hospital, both up the hill - he probably had his hip done there.
Carol Kilpatrick
Last time I seen it it had heaps of beehives behind it bout 9yrs ago
Pauline Kirker
Used to play school Hockey there in the day. The Patients were certainly entertaining, especially the ladies who for some reason had great pleasure in wanting the hair ties out of your hair, I am sure I left quite a few there in my playing time for them. Bit hard explaining to the teachers why your hair was not tied back.
Sueann Twist
Michelle Manera hello....havent seen you since seaview days...how are you? didnt realise you still lived in Hokitika. I live in Greymouth..be great to catch up one day .. im in touch with pepsi still ... Sueann Twist you can friend me :)
Judy Nicoll
I miss working at this place, things are just not the same any more
Jake Huia Ranginui
Karen Perryman it is spelled Gaol(is french i think for jail) (Y)
Colleen Rogers
Please don’t be so disrespectful of what was seen at the time as a facility for people who needed care and respect and during its time the community embraced those less fortunate in hokitika
Kevin Fleming
Colleen Rogers Thank you a great deal of my working life was in mental hospitals as a nurse.
Matthew Appo
Colleen Rogers oH the coast like no other PLACE On earth the garden of EDEN
Brenda Climo
Colleen Rogers what's disrespectful we had fun times up there.
Martin Burt
Ruru villa IIRC. One of 12 villas. Only a shell compared to its past.
Jade Dalzell
Moderator
What is there now? Use to go there as a kid had a friend staying there.
Roger Gardiner
Why isn’t it still open and treating the vulnerable?
Dumb government policy when these places were closed. I walked down Queen Street in Auckland today in support of the farmers protest.
What do you see sitting in front of every second shop door???
A supposed street person wanting money for food.
Ask yourself!
Kevin Fleming
Roger Gardiner This was the move to close mental hospitals and care for these people in the community which was fine but neither the funds nor the will of successive Govts went with the closure.Hence yet another huge catch up required.
Veronica Moore
My dear wee mum irish Annie and my late motherinlaw worked there,fo d memories of my visits there as a child .
Brenda Climo
Veronica Moore mine too Xmas party's were awesome.
Stu McConchie
Lived nearby there. Airy place.
Maureen Bedford
My Uncle, Brian McLean, worked there. I worked in Westland Hospital.
Ingrid Warren
Mal Russell
Lorraine O'Donoghue
Linda Devane
Darrell M Madgwick
My birth place I was born there In 1979
Phyllis Aberhart
It's a shame to see how most of it was left to rot
Jean Mehrtens
Spent some time working there as a very young person - still remember some of the patients/residents, and standing on a chair on top of 4 tables putting up xmas decorations - felt sorry for Sister Hilary and I was taller …
Dianne Hooper
I was born in Hokitika late fifties not sure if this was the place
Helen Meredith
My aunt was a nurse there pat kelly
Jude Nicoll
Helen Meredith i worked with pat a lot and in greymouth also, she was a great nurse
Yvonne Larner
My Aunt May Moore was a resident there for 50 years.
June Williams
I worked there in the school holidays.
Rae Burt
I was in there in the early1970s
Tania Newman
It is a mess now. I worked there in the '80s & it was well kept. Such a shame
Annemarie Harris
Very well kept, lovely gardens etc While only little I remember the garden that had the little bridge over it. I was sad to see it last time. Such a waste
Gary Robert Little
I was born there
Neroli Johnson
I worked there for years as a domestic. It was a major place of employment for Hokitika. Lots of memories. Happy patients and happy staff.
Kaye Millar
What I find so sad is that many patients lie unnamed in the cemetery beside the hospital.
Annemarie Harris
My Great Aunt lived at Ruru. When visited her about 6 weekly from Westport. She l8ved living there, the shopping trips to Hokitika and the bus rides all over the place. When we visited she would take us into the sun porch area to chat. At Ruru her bed was in the fitst wing to the right. Her bed was first on the left. She also lived at Huia Villa. When she got better we tried to take her home to Westport but while she liked the idea, it never happened.
Marlene Wright
My father was fire chief there for years,I also worked there.
Mary Moffitt
Wonderful place for people at the end of life who were not able to continue without medical support. I will never cease to admire those who worked there giving my grandmother the loving care she needed. I received some criticism for taking my small son to see her weekly. He loved the old folk and they surely loved him. Their eyes lit up as he arrived.
Kevy Rea
Mary Moffitt yes definitely it was nice place shame it's not going anymore
Barbara Fitzsimmons
Great place .no matter what .loved working there
Che Norris
A lot of people could use the help from places like that these days! Why have they closed?!... And just politely asking.
Gaye Ruru
Che Norris I agree
Heather Newby
Che Norris its all about money
Naiomi Brydie
My nana Beatrice Goodman (Maude) previously Hunt was in that Hosp....
Miss her greatly.
Hertzin Dak
Looks like the Ruru villa
Max Johnson
My old man cooked there back in the late 60s
Russell Douglas
My uncle stayed there Ken Douglas had a bad stroke and was cared 4 up there had many of visits there and most patients where very happy up there iswell that was along time ago
Martin Burt
Russell Douglas I remember Ken
Robyn Bromley
I work there for about 10 year have lots of great memories I still work with some of the clients out in the community.
Sonia Dando
My great grandfather William Charles Williams died there many years ago it was noted on his medical record’s he was in the
Hokitika lunatic Asylum
Tied up in a strait jacket with Paralysis of the brain was written in the records
Interesting there is a book written about the bad mad house
Joye Hanrahan
I worked there in the late fifties so much fun and the patients were lovely so sad for some of them Medicine had not advanced much in those days
gaye Ruru
Reading these comments is a revelation- is the past better than the present for those in need of care whatever the circumstances. Love that one of the homes has my surname.\
Alva Mundy
My aunts were placed in there they had no where else to live
Bruce Collis
gov need buy this home all homeless in big as must be 50 rooms\
Kim Gavin
I worked at seaview hospital
Herbert Shirlz
Some of you people need a lesson in humanity towards others. The people who stayed at this hospital were sick.. Have a bit of compasion.
I loved Hokatika township an people I meet there.
Terry Harding
t one time long ago our mother worked there. It's sad to see the state it's been left to get to.
Mandy Bruce
My Mother was a handful of people still living there when it closed they even shifted to place in Greymouth sadly she died not long after she went ther in about 1967 iI was seven years old she never returned home.
Mary Griffith's
A sad sad place
Therese McAra
Our mother had several holidays there too. Beautiful views. Very healing.
Sonia Moore
The early 60s, I was put there, it was not a good place, certainly not happy.
Tarn Murtha
It’s terrible how the majority of the buildings have been left to waste away up there.
Diane Craig
Tarn Murtha would have been too much maintenance.
Tarn Murtha
Diane Craig now they need pulling down. They are such an eyesore up there.But I know, where’s the money coming from? Would be good Practise for the firies
Karen Perryman
i worked there in the eighties and nineties as a domestic and supervisor then did nurse aiding loved my time there some may remember me as karen lindbom had great staff and the patients / residents were lovely they need to bring these types of places back
Sue McCallum
Yup worked there after graduating was there 6 years remember
Roni Wright were good and sad times
Cecily Woolhouse
So sad to see this once beautiful hospital and gardens in the neglected state it is now.
Linda Sinclair
I work there in the 70s,
Ian Mehrtens
Worked there for 15 years until it closed as a driver.bloody shame.Wendy Perkins
“Living In the community” = living on the streets and self-medicating. It was a shortsighted and shameless idea that didn’t take into account the complex needs of patients (& capacity of families). That facility and location was beautiful. A situation now exists where so few can get the help they need.
Martin Burt
Wendy Perkins nothing wrong with good and properly supported community care. Unfortunately the powers that be insisted on putting services on a cost based funding system and thereby negated anything related to individual support. Not just in NZ. The accountants scuttled the move.
Heather Newby
community care is a failure
Mary Moffitt
Talking to Peter Hooper when we were visiting our respective family members, we shared how grateful we were for this establishment. He said he had been visiting his mother for many years. My gran was 93 so was not there for long, but it was long enough to see the place running safely. No doubt there would be people there who did not want to be there, and that is very sad, but it was a wonderful place for desperate people trying to cope - as patients and as family. Heaven knows what they do now.
Steven Harris
I spent 9 weeks as a patient in kiwi ward in 1992 ,put on 8kg in weight during my stay...
Steven Griffiths
I remember the swimming pool and shop up there
Anita Lorraine Barltrop
I remember working there
Gaye Ruru
Anita Lorraine Barltrop Anita, are you related to Ray Barltrop who used to drive the buses?
Nigel Lordy
I worked there for over 20 years and most of my family also did.
Alison McKone
tSpons1hoorlede ·
Sadly, so many of the articles in the suitcase are undated. I thought I would share this story anyway
1 Comment
Phillip Murphy
My brother Gordon worked there for a bit in the 70s. I HAD my hand fixed next door in 60s 1970 maybe byMr Black. Remember it well with the drive up tje bii and glow worms cave at the bottom.Des Kennedy
Spent nearly 2 weeks at Seaview when my leg was operated on by Mr Black. Today it would be day surgery.
Allan Vincent
orderly during uni hols
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