Cremation

In New Zealand, cremation is now a much more widely accepted alternative to burial. There are a number of crematorium locations in the Wellington region.

Harbour City Funeral Home tends to use the services of our own Crematorium for most of the cremations that are required in a funeral arrangement as we believe we can provide the most comprehensive service available.

Crematoria we can use are:

• Harbour City Crematorium, Kilbirnie
• Karori Crematorium
• Whenua Tapu Crematorium, Porirua
• Akatarawa Crematorium

Each crematorium has different levels of facilities, we are careful to keep you fully informed of what the standards of each crematorium are.

There are a number of memorialisation options for cremated remains. They can be placed in many different locations. Each cemetery usually has a memorial garden or niche wall for this purpose.

Urns can contain some or all of the ashes. Scattering of cremated remains in places of significance to the deceased person or the family is something that some people want to do.

Memorial options for Cremation

After the body of a deceased person has been cremated, what to do with the cremated remains is sometimes overlooked. Some families know exactly what they want to do because the person who has died gave instructions or expressed certain wishes about their preferences. Not every family is ready to do this in the days immediately following the funeral service. However, it is important to make a decision about the cremated remains to bring closure to the funeral arrangements at some point.

There are quite a few options available and the following suggestions may be helpful in making some decisions about the memorialisation of your loved one's cremated remains.

Keeping Cremated Remains

A family may choose to keep the cremated remains for a couple of years. These can be kept in the container provided or placed into a more decorative container. A wide variety of ceramic, timber, terracotta and pottery urns are available at any of our funeral homes..

Placing Cremated Remains in an Existing Grave

Most cemeteries permit the placing of cremated remains into an existing grave. This is done in conjunction with the relevant council cemetery, and the family member or person who owns the grave.

Scattering Cremated Remains

The deceased may have expressed the wish for their cremated remains to be scattered somewhere that has significance for them and or their family. Arrangements can be made to have cremated remains scattered at sea or by air or by the beach or in a forest as required. This can be done by family members themselves and permission is not usually required for this to happen.

Memorial Garden

Most cemeteries have attractive commemorative areas in rose gardens, native shrub gardens, wall niches or other features. An inscribed plaque identifies the memorial position where the cremated remains have been placed. The memorial positions and plaques can be organised through the preferred cemetery.