Magician Mark Rose-Christie runs Mystery Ghost Tours in Port Elizabeth, visiting cemeteries, schools, hospitals and historic houses throughout the city. The Port Elizabeth-based magician also runs ghost tours in other cities. His stories are drawn from police files, library archives and hospital reports, and are highlighted by current residents’ stories of first-hand encounters.
One of the stories is about St George’s Preparatory School. The current residents are convinced there is a ghost at the school. Footsteps are often heard footsteps going out of a bedroom, onto the landing and down the stairs. The bedroom was the room where the original owner, John Daverin, lived in the house and was called Knockfierna (Fairies on the Hill) when it was built in 1838. Another story is of a 20-year-old phantom hitchhiker in Target Kloof, who thumbs a lift from unsuspecting motorists. As the motorist is about to stop for him, he vanishes into the night. The Port Elizabeth tour includes the Buckingham Road house which suffered 71 fires in recent years. Then there is the story of a Provincial Hospital nun ghost, who appears in the older wards and comforts patients at night with a glass of water. The Port Elizabeth St George’s Club ghost of an 1820 Settler is known to tip the old paintings so skew at times that some of them crash to the floor.
Mark, a former Grey High School pupil, spent 4 years researching for the tour, which takes 4 hours on a luxury bus and stops for refreshments along the way.