It’s no secret the Historical Maritime Park and Museum of Paeroa attracts boat loads of people to its grounds for the Christmas Light Show every December.
But for the first time in its history, the Paeroa institution is introducing a new ‘spooktacular’ event: Halloween Maritime Mania.
The team is made up of chairman Colin James, treasurer Gloria James, chief executive Fleur McDermott and also Belinda McDermott and Ellen Cooper on specialised lighting to pull everything together.
The park, which was transformed into a “playground of the haunted” for the inaugural event, kicked off the first of two weekends on October 24 to 27 for thrill-seekers, families and “lovers of all things eerie”.
The second leg of the event was set to run for four more nights from October 30 to November 2.
Chief executive and “new kid on the block” Fleur told The Profile they wanted to create a safe environment for families to experience Halloween. “It’s about enjoying this park and families, and really bringing families together to something that they can go and enjoy in the evening and wander around. It’s a non-profit [organisation], so events like Christmas and Halloween is what keeps the place afloat,” she said.
“Also it’s just the joy for the kids, and seeing their faces and wowing them.”
Fleur and park team member and daughter Belinda McDermott were part of the creative team who made many of the props and scenes such as the spiders and tunnels, spooky characters and the science laboratory. “We haven’t gone out and spent a whole lot of money. You know, we could have just gone and bought props [but] we make stuff. We haven’t bought costumes. It’s just what we basically could find. It’s a lot about repurposing stuff,” Fleur said.
One apparatus the park used as its mega Christmas tree for the Light Show was turned into a giant witches hat, while one area was set up with a coffin donated by Twentymans Funeral Services, Fleur said.
“It brings [the] community together, it gets people down to the park.”
While Fleur said they got “a real kick” out of the kids seeing the event, they planned to make it not too spooky, just “friendly-spooky”. But the overall motivation was “definitely” all about families, she said.
“We are excited about this and the effort has been huge in getting ready to theme the entire park.”
DETAILS: Halloween Maritime Mania from 7.30pm, October 30 to November 2. Find Maritime Park Paeroa on Facebook for any cancellations. Visit www.iticket.co.nz for more.
By DAVIDDA HIKATANGATA
