Absolutely Positively Walking - Ye Olde Horrore Tour

Reviewed by Alison Little

Your hosts for (from left to right) 'Ye Olde Horrore Tour' and 'Barry's Bush Trails'

Absolutely Positively Walking - Ye Olde Horrore Tour
10th - 19th Feb - 9.30pm
11th & 18th Feb - 4pm
10th & 18th Feb – Midnight
Duration: 45 minutes
Prices: $10 - $8
Venue: Meet at Bats Theatre (Door sales, phone 385-0198)

Absolutely Positively Walking is also running another tour titled
'Barry's Bush Trails'

I’ve been on walking tours through many cities, including a Witch Walk in Edinburgh, a Jack the Ripper Tour in London, and a Voodoo Walk through the cemeteries of old New Orleans. So, the 2006 Wellington Fringe Festival’s offering of "Ye Olde Horrore Tour" was an easy pick, despite the wonderfully crowded schedule of Fringe events.

The intrepid walkers met in the bar at Bats Theatre, some needing a little Dutch courage before venturing out. Our guide was the Grim Reaper herself (Jo Randerson), who presented us with sashes and organised us into a ragged group photo before leaving, "just in case".

The tour wound past various notorious Oriental Bay hotels and down to the waterfront, through crime scenes still haunted by their tragic victims, and through sites infested by malicious supernatural creatures. I won’t give details of what occurred, being bound by ritual oaths. But our guide kept us from danger in an excellently laconic style, as she led us to hell and back for 45 very entertaining minutes.

I can sincerely say that none of the previous tours I’d been on were anything like this one. Who would have thought that sleepy Wellington had such a torrid history, one of murder most foul and suicidal tragedies? Or that the city was such a centre of intense psychic activity? Other tours merely talk about ghosts and monsters, this tour delivers ‘em wholesale.

The Footsteps ‘Absolutely Positively Walking’ crew have created a great piece of comedy theatre – thoroughly recommended, and worth staying up late for!

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