Spookers

The other night, Aaron dragged me to a year-round haunted theme park of sorts called Spookers.  Now, I'm usually game to go to stuff like this, even though being scared is definitely not my favorite thing.  I think it has to do with my love for Halloween and getting into the spirit.  I love everything about Halloween, so I'll go in a haunted house or two if I must.  Since we didn't get to celebrate Halloween last year, now was our chance.  However, I was totally unprepared and pretty terrified.  Spookers has 4 different haunted attractions (2 houses, 1 corn maze and a claustrophobia tunnel thing).  Here's Aaron's intro video.

Flyer:

Lobby:

Bar:

Here's me, annoyed as heck that I have to walk through 4 haunted houses:

Now, I've been to my fair share of haunted houses and this place was particularly scary because #1: the walkthroughs are quite long.  The corn maze took us at least 20 minutes and the other haunted houses were about 10-12.  I've never been in a haunted house for that long and by the end you're just hoping to get out alive!  #2: they can touch and grab you and you're not allowed to touch them back.  I've never been in a haunted attraction where people are grabbing my ankles in the dark or blowing in my ear and tickling my neck while saying "This one smells yummy."  Don't get me wrong, they're not shoving you around, it's mostly just light touching.  BUT when you're wearing a sown up skin mask covered in blood while wielding a saber, the last thing I want is you touching me.

We couldn't take pictures in the attractions (obviously), but here's the outside of claustrophobia:

It was in this sea can and this was the most frightening experience ever because you have to go in by yourself and it's completely dark and you're in VERY tight, enclosed spaces and have to crawl around and feel your way through this short maze.  Aaron thought nothing of it, but it got me really good.  Me no likey small spaces.

Here's us waiting to board the bus (it doesn't drive, you just get on and walk through) to get to the corn maze:

Video
We needed a torch (flashlight) for the corn maze:

It's a shame we couldn't take pictures or videos in the attractions because although I was completely mortified, I couldn't help but admire some of the detail and thought that went into the decorating.  They were really creative with some of the costumes and a lot of the rooms had really interesting themes.  It makes sense if you think about it because it's a year-round theme park, so they're not just setting up for Halloween and subsequently tearing it back down.  They get to keep adding and improving all year.  One of the rooms that stuck with me was a room filled with incubators and when you peeked inside each one you saw these deformed 2-headed zombie babies (it sounds ridiculous now that I'm typing it out) and then this zombie nurse jumps out and it's totally creepy.  It sounds dumb, but it's dark and you're scared and there's eerie music playing and you're scared and this zombie emerges and you're scared, so the background props just add to the ambiance of complete horror.

This one was really cool (by cool I mean horrifying):

It was a clown themed house and you wore these 3-D glasses and it made the neon paint on the walls pop out at you and move, making you super disoriented.  It's already dark and clowns are everywhere and now I can barely walk because the walls are moving.  It was like being on an acid trip, at least what I would imagine an acid trip to feel like (everything I know about hallucinogens I got from Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas).

We got a free picture (well, not really free, the admission price was pretty steep):

Can you tell I'm just not ready?  My eyes are screaming "HELP ME!"  I also just don't do well with a giant flash going off on my eyes in the dark.

Here's Aaron's arm the next day:

Overall, I did end up having fun, but it came at the cost of at least 2 of my 9 lives.  I've been to haunted theme parks before (Pirates of Emerson in Pleasanton is beyond scary), but going in another country was very cool (by cool I mean I peed a little).

After we dropped Tui off in her very expensive parking space, we wandered around the city for awhile.

I know you can't tell from these pictures (at all), but Saturdays in Auckland are nuts!  There were people everywhere (most of them drunk, as it was already past midnight).  It was surprising because on every other night (even Friday), it's not like that at all!  The streets are like a ghost town.  But wait 'til Saturday rolls around and it's a whole different ball game.  I don't know why we didn't take any pictures of all the drunkards walking the streets.  It's the same here as Australia: if you look/act drunk they won't let you into the bar (or they'll kick you out) and won't serve you, so I bet a lot of people get chucked out onto the streets and can't go anywhere else, so they just wander around like hobos (do people still say hobos?).
Anyway, we popped into the Irish pub we like and listened to live music for a bit before heading back home to have nightmares about butchers covered in meat stroking my face and whispering "Here, piggy, piggy" while oinking repeatedly.  Yum.

Just wanted to say Happy Super Bowl (yay, San Francisco!!!) and Happy Chinese New Year!  It's the year of the monkey starting tomorrow (well, today for us).  新年快乐