Tip Off

Tip Off
New Zealand River Tip Head Has Anomalous Aura

--From Joel Murdoch,
joel@gginc.co.nz

Almost five years ago [circa 1997] when I lived in Blaketown, a suburb of Greymouth, a town on the South Island of New Zealand, my friend and I were down at the "tip head." A tip head in New Zealand speak is a man-made bank that extends a river bank where it meets the sea. In the case of Blaketown, it's used to control the flow of the river.

I'm not entirely sure which of us came up with the bright idea to go on this night; it was very windy, the waves were big and breaking on the tip (not strong enough to wash us off though -- they rarely are) and the dark clouds suggested rain very soon. The tip has a ramp leading to a lower platform on the riverside where ships used to load and unload cargo. My friend was looking down at this platform when I noticed a very big wave approaching. I told him it was time to move but he didn't respond. Something seemed very wrong -- it's like he wasn't even there. He snapped out of it after I screamed at him a few times and we got out of the way. He was completely freaking out. I asked him why he didn't respond and he said he'd seen a vision of ship. It was daytime in this vision and lots of people were about, loading up this old-fashioned steam ship. It was an ordinary, simple scene, which discounts both a past life recollection (ones not prompted by hypnosis are nearly always the death of the life in question) and an atmospheric photograph ghost (assuming strong emotions are the key to such things).

We went back the next day and his description of the tip in his vision squared with what's there today to a T. He said the ramp had a cart on it, mounted on train rails. While there are no rails there today, there are further towards land and the concrete on the ramp is of a noticeably different grain to the rest of the platform. He said that the tip seemed shorter and, again, a different grain of concrete towards the end suggests this is true. He said that there were streams of water pouring off the sides of the tip, and there are remnants of wooden channels on the surface. These were obviously intended to siphon water from breaking waves off quicker. I asked him how he felt during the vision and he said, "I felt like I was there, but shouldn't have been." The people in this vision gave no indication they knew of his "presence," but this is hardly a relevant detail as it can't have lasted more than 10 seconds.

This person in question was and still is one of my best friends: an observant, intelligent and logical but still open-minded man who is currently in the Air Force. We'd been down to the tip at night a hundred times before and a hundred since and nothing like it has ever happened again.

The sea around the tiphead is very rough, and the entry to the river is very hazardous at times. Many ships have gone down in the area, and I'd be surprised if the place hasn't seen at least one suicide. There's a monument down there to the people who've drowned in the area over the years. It's got about a dozen plaques on it, and if anything it's underused. When I head down there at night, even when I think about all this stuff, it doesn't bug me. But some nights there's just...something about the place. One night it was a beautifully clear and calm night, New Year's about 1999 if I'm not mistaken. The view from the end would've been something special, but my friend (a different one) and I both agreed: Something wasn't right. Another time I was down there with the friend who had the timeslip; we got halfway down the road and I couldn't get away fast enough.

I've often wondered if the emotional imprint/atmospheric photograph-type ghosts aren't just timeslips manifesting to a weaker level. There are too many ghosts who obviously are not sentient but also aren't doing anything that would suggest a strong emotional situation is the trigger. You also have to factor in the surroundings -- some places haven't changed much over the years to the casual observer. Also, if the experience features people, then the person viewing the thing might be so caught up (e.g.: "Holy shit, there's a dude in a suit of armor!") in what's going on to really take in the fact that the scenery's changed as well. Basically, I think timeslips are probably more common than they at first appear.

Joel Murdoch

joel@gginc.co.nz