Wellington's mysterious buzz gets people humming
"Skinny Mobile's new sound system?"
Featured commentWellington’s mysterious hum has sleep-deprived residents desperate for an answer.
One Wellingtonian thinks it could be coming from a station wagon’s sound system, while another jokingly thinks it could be Terry Serepisos putting his "thinking cap" on.
News of the low hum being heard on a nightly basis around the city has caused a stir, with dozens of suggestions about where the noise could be coming from.
Wellington city council spokesman Clayton Anderson says staff received another phone call early this morning about the noise, to add to the more than 20 they have already received.
The noise appears to be disturbing the peace in the city fringe suburbs of Newtown, Mt Victoria and Mt Cook. Today’s complaint came from someone in nearby Berhampore.
Mr Anderson says emails from around the country have also been flooding in with helpful suggestions and theories.
“One man suggested the hum could be the city’s sewage pumps resonating in underground pipework.”
Wellington police have yet to be called in to offer their thoughts and noise control officers remain at-the-ready to investigate.
Other responses to NBR ONLINE’s story about the hum have attracted all sorts of opinions.
Some have suggested the noise could be coming from a ship’s idling engine in the harbour and another thinks early-morning bakery extractor fans may be to blame.
One reader has warned others to not to make light of the situation as "due to sleep deprivation, my humour is at a low point".
“Isn’t Wellington always humming,” anotherquipped.
Chris Chamberlain has a completely different take. He thinks it may be coming from a powerful sub-woofer.
He admits it may not be the same sound, but last night while waiting for a bus on Lambton Quay he heard a ‘weird music track full of bass’ coming from a dark red station wagon.
“At a distance and if they were stationary for long periods of time, I could certainly understand people going out of their minds,” he told NBR ONLINE.
He is planning to phone the city council with his take on the Wellington hum.
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Comments and questions14
Wasn't there a pop song about a mysterious noise. The old guy offered to solve the problem for twice his normal fee.
Or
Does the noise in my head bother you
Something's gotta give
Hold your breath til you turn blue
Does the noise in my head bother you
Something's Gotta Give - Aerosmith
How about the naval vessel in port - it was humming when I walked past this morning?
could it be somthing like this, seems to occur in various places around the world. in Hawaii it was the volcanoe
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hum
Skinny Mobile's new sound system?
Most likely industrial noise, some aircon, extraction fan or generator has developed a fault.
oh the joys of living in the inner part of the city huh?
It's the Post Office van out hunting down unlicensed TV watchers...
The pop song about a mysterious noise was "That Noise" by Anthony Newley. It was released in 1962.
Here's the lyrics:
Can you hear it, that noise? It’s been driving me potty all day.
I woke up this morning in my usual lively way
Peeped out from the bedclothes at another dreary day
Feeling full of fun, I threw the alarm clock at the cat
Turned over and went back to sleep and thought that that was that
But it wasn’t, it was ‘that’.
I yawned and stretched and scratched a bit
Then tumbled out of bed
But still I felt this rhythm sorta pounding in my head
I thought, well, this is funny, but it can’t go on all day
I think I’ll just ignore it, then it’s bound to go away
Have you ever had one of those days when nothing seems to go right?
I started out to work and met the postman on his round
I said, Good morning postman, can you hear that funny sound?
He listened and he said, d’you mean that *>#^%$#?
I said, That’s right
He said, That’s funny, I can’t hear a thing
Have you ever tried to push a postman through a letterbox? It’s not easy.
I went up to a policeman
I said, Can you hear that noise?
He looked at me as if I was a gang o’ Teddy boys
I said, You should arrest it for disturbing people’s peace
He said. All right, my lad, move on before I call the police!
Have you ever tried to push a policeman through a letterbox?
It’s all right till you get up to his boots.
I went to see a wise man who said, Leave it all to me!
I’ll analyse the noise for only twice my normal fee
He came back three days later, and said
It’s tricky to explain
In fact, I don’t know what it is but there it goes again
Have you ever tried to push a wise man through twice his normal fee?
It’s all right until you get up to his letterbox
No, that can’t be right
I went down to the studios to record my latest hit
A sentimental ballad that I thought was full of potential
But every time I tried to sing this very lovely song
This funny noise keeps starting up and makes me go all wrong
But I’m not gonna be beaten by it
I’m gonna record this hit ballad if it kills me
Because it’s a very pretty tune
“What kind of fool am I, who never...
Give me an A, will you, Ian? (plays piano note) Lovely…
What kind of fool am I, who never fell-in…(plays note twice more)
Who never…fell-in-love…”
Will you please try and stop that noise
Will somebody please try and stop that noise
Has anyone considered that it might be an elaborate bank job with drilling beneath the street towards lucrative safes?
Gerry Brownlee, brewing up wind after a particularly vicious curry and beers at Bellamy's ?,Or just the the hot air build up in the chamber which has finally broke loose.
The guy who seems to be trolling NBR by disliking every comment, just humming into a loudhaler to annoy everyone?
Could be the giggling gaggle of gays
Yep - it will be the slathering Labour Party, Greens, Mana and unions spewing forth faux outrage at an invented slight because someone else won't pay for their promises... and the noise is their collective support to the most current Labour "leader" usual voice...