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Day 15 of "Figuring it Out" - Exploring some of New Zealand's Most Prolific Unsolved Mysteries

Updated: Sep 26

Kia Ora whanau, happy day before the AFL grand final public holiday! And happy extra money day for those of us working today.






This morning has been an awful IBS attack morning and my stomach is not happy with me. I've got a powerade and my wheat bag at the ready LOL. I am really not looking forward to how much the iron is going to mess with my body the next few months.


Today I am working until 4 (yay) and Luke's out playing cricket in Geelong today - so jealous that he is outside in the sun and I am stuck inside staring at my computer screen all day. Although in good news, while it's quiet at work and our admin tasks are looking good, I can work on my own things in the background. I've been playing around with canva designs, making content for my second instagram account @asheydesigns. If you're interested in my main insta, it's @asheycakes to keep in line with the theme of the blog. So that's a bit of fun. I'm also going to try get some cleaning done this afternoon and get outside for a walk at 4 once I finish up at work today. I also need to wash my hair because I haven't done that since it's been freshly cut and dyed and it's getting quite greasy, but alas, I am looking forward to seeing how my curls turn out and using my 'Not Your Mother's' curl cream. I used to use this back in NZ when it was more easy to get but I've finally found it online and definitely want to go back to using it. Once I've gotten back into more of a curly hair girl routine, I'll make a blog post about it.


For today's blog post, I thought I'd jump back into the creepy mysteries seeing as it's almost October and this weekend is finally daylight savings in Melbourne (so we won't be 3 hours behind NZ, only 2 again wahoo). My body is also craving extra sunshine atm too so I am really looking forward to spending a lot more time outside over summer. And hopefully this weekend as well as Luke and I have booked a cute air bnb for our anniversary on a farm with some fluffy cows.


So let's get into it!


Four of New Zealand's Most Prolific Unsolved Mysteries


1. The Kaikoura UFO Sightings - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaikoura_lights


In December 1978, in New Zealand's small town of Kaikoura (a beautiful town with many whales and seals pre-quakes), there was a collection of UFO sightings where many people experienced sightings of unexplained lights in the sky. A crew of a cargo aircraft saw a series of flashing lights (described as a very large UFO with 5 flashing white lights and allegedly discs that dropped from the UFO to then disappear). A TV crew investigating this UFO sighting also saw lights on a flight from Blenheim to Christchurch during their trip. Many images and videos were taken of these lights which can be seen "here." The NZ Ministry of Defence believed that these lights were either reflections off squid boats, meteors that might not have burnt yet, lights from planets or a trick of the eye from lights from trains or cars at night. These UFOs (or lights) have often appeared since 1978 but the last reporting was back in 2015.


What do you think? Are these UFOs in Kaikoura a natural phenomena or is there something else going on?




The Tamil Bell is a bronze bell found in New Zealand in 1836 by missionary William Colenso. Māori women were using the bell to cook potatoes (they originally thought it was a pot) in Whangarei but Colenso found that it was a bell from a ship. It is called the Tamil Bell as on the bell was Tamil Script - an old script used by Tamil speakers in places such as India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore. Allegedly, this bell had been with Māori for many generations. Colenso traded in a cast iron pot for the bell. It is now in Wellington's Te Papa Museum and is even more puzzling because no one has ever found evidence of this bell travelling to or being traded with New Zealand - with some describing it like a UFO. Some theories suggest that it was brought to NZ by a ghost ship or a that it had been dropped ashore by travellers that didn't stop in NZ.


What's your opinion on the Tamil Bell? Let me know in the comments below.




New Zealand farming couple David and Jeanette Crewe were murdered around the 17th June 1970 in their home. Arthur Allan Thomas was originally convicted for these murders but later pardoned on inaccuracies with the evidence (and I've read a few books on this cold case, it's really really sad what happened to Arthur). Apparently, someone had messed with the crime seen and planted evidence - I don't believe we know much more than this. The Crewes had a baby called Rochelle.


The Crewes were found missing on June 22 by Jeanette's father Lenard Demler. Demler had been asked to check in on them as their neighbours were alarmed when neither of them were answering their landline. Their 18 month old baby Rochelle was found distressed in her cot by Demler and allegedly, he then went off to run a farm errand (that's really weird - but I'm guessing he still didn't know what had occurred). Health professionals believe that it is not possible for an infant to survive for more than 5 days without fluids - and reports found that she had not retained any water for at least 48 hours. Later, there was a witness report that a mystery woman was seen on the property on the 19th June. However, following Demler's behaviour, police became very suspicious of him. However, anything regarding Demler's behaviour was only considered circumstantial and he denied any involvement in his daughter and her husband's disappearance. He also had an alibi.


They found Jeanette's body on the 16th August 1970 inside a duvet wrapped with copper wire in the Waikato (and then later David's body). The wire was linked to neighbouring farmer Athur Allan Thomas. Both the victims had been shot to death. Police also believed that Jeanette may have been s*xually assaulted before her death (which led police to believe that Demler was never involved - interesting theory but incest still happens so idk why this was their evidence for taking Demler' off their suspects list). Side note, when you're talking about cold cases, it's probably better to avoid bias but I really can't help saying what I think here.


Police could not link a particular gun to the murder weapon. However, on the 27th October 1970, police found a spent cartridge case in the Crewe house where they believe the perpetrator had left it. This case had marks linking to Arthur Allan Thomas' rifle. Thomas was then arrested and charged in November. Even though his wife and cousin gave him an alibi, he was sent to trial and it was said that the 'mystery woman' was Arthur's wife that was seen on the property (but the witness stood ground saying it wasn't his wife - tbh I don't think anyone believed this witness because they wanted to pin the murder on Thomas). Thomas' alleged motive for the murder was that he had an obsession with Jeanette but there was little to no evidence to support this. Apparently, Demler had told the authorities that Thomas was obsessed with his daughter and used to pester her.


In 1971, Thomas was found guilty of the murders. A second prosecution was also held in 1973, and again, he was convicted. Much media interest and a campaign by journalist Pat Booth led to a pardon for Thomas. Forensic work had found that the case had been planted at the crime scene. Thomas was released after serving 9 years in prison and awarded NZ950k compensation.


A police review in 2014 found that Demler had no part in the murders and ruled that there was not enough evidence for a new persecution. To this day, the case remains unsolved. You can read more about this case "here."



4. The Murders of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Ben_Smart_and_Olivia_Hope


Two young friends Ben Smart and Olivia Hope celebrated NY's together in 1988 and disappeared early on the 1st January 1988. They were celebrating on a yacht with some other people in Marlborough Sounds - they had been invited by a stranger (and that's pretty common in NZ to trust strangers like that). The last time they were seen alive were the early hours of New Years Day partying on the yacht.


An investigation led police to believe that Scott Watson murdered these two friends (who was from Picton). Watson was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Watson maintains his innocence and has tried to appeal many times (but has been unsuccessful). However, this case remains the subject of many speculations as to whether or not Watson murdered the two victims.


The two friends had a booking in Marlborough sounds for where they were going to stay, but unfortunately someone else had taken their spot. They were then offered a place on Guy Wallace's yacht for the night - which they accepted and there was also an unidentified man on the yacht that night (it's unclear whether this was Scott Watson or someone else). Anyway, Ben and Olivia were dropped off with this unidentified man on another yacht who offered them a place to sleep for the rest of the night and were never seen again. It was first reported as a missing persons case but many said this was out of character for the two friends and soon became a homicide investigation. I don't believe the bodies were ever found. However, some hair found on Watson's yacht was DNA-linked to Olivia - which is what the whole case seems to be based off and Guy Wallace seeing a photograph of Watson with his eyes blinking - resembled the mystery man's hooded eyes.


A full break down of the case can be read "here."


What do you think happened to Ben and Olivia? Did they catch the right mystery man or is someone else still out there? And where the h*ck are their bodies? It will be interesting to see if any remains are ever found as to what the future will hold for this case. I hope these two get their justice.


I think those are some pretty heft unsolved mysterious so we will keep it at a short amount for today. Let's also switch our brains over to some weird facts about New Zealand!



Odd Facts about New Zealand


  1. Like Australia, New Zealand has an obsession with big things. I remember when I was little dad used to tell me every camping trip that there was a giant that lived in NZ because of all the big things (a big fish in Rakaia, a big ice cream in Kaikoura, the big L&P bottle in Paeroa, the big fruit in Cromwell and my fave - the donut in Springfield) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_Zealand%27s_big_things

  2. Possums are pests because they eat all the native bird life and trees - https://www.doc.govt.nz/documents/science-and-technical/everybodyspossum.pdf

  3. Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu is the longest place name in the world - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taumatawhakatangi%C2%ADhangakoauauotamatea%C2%ADturipukakapikimaunga%C2%ADhoronukupokaiwhen%C2%ADuakitanatahu

  4. There's a lot of bloody sheep (I don't have a reference for this one but trust me)

  5. The first commercial bungy jump was in Queenstown (the A.J Hackett one) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._J._Hackett

  6. NZ is a nuclear-free zone - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_nuclear-free_zone#:~:text=In%201984%2C%20Prime%20Minister%20David,Zealand%20became%20nuclear%2Dfree%20zones.

  7. NZ was the first to give women the right to vote (Thanks Kate) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_suffrage_in_New_Zealand

  8. NZ no longer has a 5 cent coin (we used to but then they got rid of it in 2006) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_five-cent_coin

  9. Baldwin Street is the steepest residential street in the world (and they do Jaffa races on it - it's very hard to walk up) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_Street

  10. The Keas will destroy any rubber on your car. They are super cheeky and will also try and get into your car and come with you - watch this video of them destroying a cop car - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBdvRCkCNfo


So there you have it, some more positive facts to end today's blog post.


For today's question, what is the most unusual piece of knowledge that you have?


Thanks for reading, see you again soon!

Much Love,

Ash xx





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