Kapiti Coast Funeral Home

05/08/2025

Wills are not something to ignore

https://youtu.be/AVoSvjBe0xg

So, Dad, you've been a funeral director for quite a long time now, so tell me about wills. Why do we do them? When should we start making a will? Yeah, good question. You say I've been a funeral director for a long time, is that because I'm really old? That's why you're asking about wills? Absolutely.

Hey, wills as far as funerals go, and they're a really important guide for the person arranging the funeral. In fact, the key things to put in your wills are the things that would be helpful for your family when you die. Some people go, I don't care, but that's not helpful to your family, so some guidance.

The lawyer will ask you simple things like, do you want to be buried or cremated? Great start, but some more, not everything, not every single hymn you want and every single piece of music or whether you want to be buried at the cemetery or whether you want a natural burial. That can be helpful, but not all the details of your service, just some decent bits. I think things like your favourite song, things like where you want your ashes scattered.

Gosh, the number of problems we have with some families when they can't decide where to scatter ashes. So keep it simple, but give some really helpful guidance. So ashes, burial or cremation, and some really key pieces to how you want your family to say goodbye.

Don't say, don't say goodbye, just give some key things.

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04/08/2025

Live stream Link for Barbara Thomas

30/07/2025

𝐈𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐬 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐬?
We’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Some farewells are guided by deep-rooted tradition — where the theme isn’t about colour schemes or music, but cultural and spiritual significance.

For Muslim families, burial within 24 hours is a sacred religious practice, not just a preference. For Māori, tangihanga carries generations of meaning through protocols on the marae, the hongi, and specific karakia (prayers). In Pasifika funerals, traditional ceremonies like the ‘fine mat’ may be central, while music or shared stories reflect a blend of heritage and New Zealand life.

25/07/2025

Fruit platter anyone?

25/07/2025

25/07/2025

Why Our Caskets Aren’t Flat Packed and Never Will Be People often assume that because our caskets are made from cardboard, they must arrive flat packed like some kind of DIY kit. They don’t. ...

14/07/2025

Do living wakes work for people who are having assisted dying?

Yes, they do. In fact, most people who are having an assisted death do have a party before they go. They have a chance for everyone to come and say goodbye and they really are quite successful.

But a little bit like my story before, we have found that families who have had assisted dying and had a living wake beforehand still have the same grief afterwards and often come through our Loss & Grief Centre Kapiti, saying, I wish we'd still had a funeral. So yes, the living wake was important, but they actually need to say goodbye, not just a cremation where the person is taken away from them, but actually somewhere they can go, maybe just a private farewell with close family and friends, but they need to honour their grief again by saying goodbye, by being in the moment after the death, because it begins a healthy grief journey, good grief rather than cut-off grief.
And many of them have actually said that death has felt like a sudden death because they haven't felt like they should have a funeral, so they haven't had that goodbye.

So living wake, yes, with assisted dying, fantastic, but also think about the grief process afterwards for those who are close and need to grieve well.

10/07/2025

Living Wakes getting more popular

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08/07/2025

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐛𝐢𝐜𝐲𝐜𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 ‘𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲’ 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐚 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐲 𝐀𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝
Intrigued by the mystery shrouded figure, Stuff made enquiries and discovered the person being pulled was definitely not alive.
Nor were they ever.

08/07/2025

The Retirement Navigator - as it's called - is being described as a one-of-a-kind tool for spending in golden years.

08/07/2025

"It is difficult to put into words the raw emotion of our members that I experienced during the lockdowns and the restrictions imposed on us. I recall one conversation with a member who became very emotional when describing how he felt being the only witness to the final farewell of a loved one as the family could not attend, the family having placed their faith in him to be their witness. This is the real human cost of the decisions that were made.” Gary Taylor (President of Funeral Directors Association during Covid)

Read the full joint submission by the Funeral Directors Association and NZ Embalmers Association and NZ Herald article "Covid-19 Inquiry: Families and businesses detail crippling losses, lost schooling and farewelling dying family"

24/06/2025

Watch out for funeral links that ask for you to pay to view, that is not how we do it in New Zealand, funerals are FREE to watch, and people that restream free services for money should be reported to the funeral homes

LIVESTREAM SCAMS

The Guardian approached the NAFD last week for comment on Facebook scams around live-streaming of funerals. Click on the link to read more of what our CEO, Andrew Judd, had to say:

“As a rule, funeral directors do not charge for livestreaming. The public should be extremely wary of any external links supposedly promoting one and asking for money”

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/jun/22/funeral-scams-fraud-live-streams