Napier Prison will close due to health and safety concerns, and because retaining walls require earthquake strengthening. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
Napier's former prison is closing due to safety concerns, leaving the man who runs tours through the site unhappy he will be locked out.
The 162-year-old prison, New Zealand's oldest jail, has become a popular attraction since Toro Waaka began leasing the Bluff Hill property more than two decades ago.
He first opened a backpackers' lodge, which has since closed, before beginning the popular tours. They attract more than 30,000 people a year.
Toitū Te Whenua Land Information NZ, which manages the Crown landbanked site, told Waaka last month his lease was up.
Land Information said the site was an earthquake risk and retaining walls needed an upgrade.
Waaka has closed off the areas around the walls, including a hole dug into them that was used to punish misbehaving prisoners.
"You can't even stand up in there. There's barely enough room to lie in there, but because it's only dug into the hill with no supporting structure it has incrementally collapsed," he said.
The barricades were not enough for Land Information, which has decided it needs to start investigations to see what work is required to fix the problem.
"The wall was the issue," Waaka said.
"But now they're using other things like health and safety, but we've been here 22 years... I would have thought that if there were issues they would have been picked up. In today's world if you're looking for reasons they will find them."
The last prison tour will happen on 19 April, and Waaka has to move everything out of the heritage-listed buildings early next month.
He said he had spent a lot of his own money over the years on maintenance and strengthening work to prison buildings, so was disappointed at how quickly it was all ending, especially as he had not seen any reports documenting the safety concerns.
"I have kept this place intact. Prior to me coming here we had a lot of glue sniffers in the area," he said.
"They were up here, moving in here. This was closed for 11 years. If I hadn't come up here this place would no longer be here."
Toro Waaka is disappointed his lease to run tours through the prison is ending. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
Waaka said the closure was a shame given the prison's history - including playing host to well-known names such as serial escaper George Wilder, drug smuggler Terry Clark and 19th century Māori leader Te Kooti before its 1993 closure.
"This is a very iconic place for Napier because it wasn't just a prison. When all the people came off the ships, this is where a lot of them came because they were sick. This is were they were treated.
"It was also an orphanage, and the bottom [building] was a mental institution.
"It was like Napier's first social services centre."
Eight staff will lose their jobs, including Maika Wanoa, who has worked there part-time for three months.
"This place should stay and remain open because people want to come here. I have experienced that over the last week or so where people are saying, 'We better get there'."
Kenzie McLean, 16, who works part-time around her school classes, will also miss the job.
She gets to lock people in the popular escape rooms, which she said about 50 percent of visitors managed to get out of.
Napier mayor Kirsten Wise said the closure saddened her, and she had memories of passing the prison when it was still open on her way home from school in the late 1980s.
She was advocating to Land Information to get the site reopened.
"It's really, really disappointing. It's such a huge part of our local heritage and history, and in fact for the whole country.
"When Toro contacted me to tell me that his lease wasn't being re-assigned, it was really disappointing to hear."
Areas around the retaining walls have been fenced off from visitors at Napier Prison. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
Another person disappointed at the closure was Kelly Dunning, who now lives in Georgia. She has a special reason to remember the prison, as she met her husband Lee Carter there.
"It was really funny because whenever people ask us that question, 'Oh, where did you guys meet?' I always say, ''Oh, we meet in prison'.
"It always gets a bit of a side eye."
The pair were travelling around New Zealand and worked and stayed at the prison in 2009, at the since-closed backpackers.
Dunning, then a 23-year-old on her first long trip away from home, set eyes on Carter, who is from northern England, when he was covered in Zombie makeup, working on a haunted night-time tour.
"It's a special place for me because it changed my life. Having it be a place for backpackers, it may be strange because it was so different to what it was initially built for."
That encounter with Carter led them to a life of travelling the world together and blogging about their experiences - all thanks to an encounter at Napier Prison.
Waaka said he would miss the chance to create memories like that, as well as being able to share the prison's stories.
Land Information head of crown property Sonya Wikitera said the prison needed to be vacated for site works, because it would be impractical to have visitors there while that happened.
Once the investigative work was done, Land Information would have a clearer picture of future options for the site and the cost of the works needed.
"The former prison and site present an earthquake risk and the surrounding retaining wall needs strengthening, taking into account the heritage considerations," she said.
"We recognise the property is important to the local community and is part of the wider history of New Zealand."
Waaka was given notice to vacate on 18 March.
"The tenancy agreement ran on a month-to-month basis and reflected our need to undertake this work at some point," Wikitera said.
"We are now working with the tenant on transition arrangements to support their moving out of the building.
"We are mindful this is a frustrating experience for the tenant, and we will work with them to co-ordinate their move as close to the 20-day notice period as possible."
