Cremation Services in Wellington
Most Wellington families choose cremation.
It gives you more time and more choice than people expect, and it doesn’t mean going without a funeral.
You can hold a full service first, at our Willis Street chapel or anywhere that means something to your family. You can have a simple cremation with no service at all. Or something in between. We’ll talk you through each one before you decide anything.
There’s no rush on this. Call us on (04) 385 0745 any time, day or night, and we’ll start wherever you need to start.
Choosing between cremation and burial
Neither is more respectful than the other. It comes down to what suits your family, and sometimes to faith or cultural practice.
Cremation returns the ashes to you, usually a couple of days afterwards. You can keep them, scatter them, or inter them in a cemetery. You don’t have to decide any of that straight away.
Burial gives your family a place to visit. That matters to some families more than anything else, and it’s the right reason to choose it.
One thing worth knowing: the service and the cremation are separate decisions. Whatever you choose, you can still have the funeral you want.
Your cremation options at Lychgate
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Direct Cremation
A private cremation, no service and no attendance. You can say goodbye at home before our team arrives, and the ashes come back to you sooner.
$4,250
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Dignified Cremation
No service. Time to say goodbye at our Willis Street chapel, in your own time. Includes a pine casket.
$6,995
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A funeral or memorial service
A full service, at our chapel, a church, a marae, or anywhere else that means something to your family. Cremation or burial follows.
Price on application
Every one of these includes the same professional care. The paperwork, the permits, the transfers, and the ashes returned to you. The difference is the service, not the standard.
What the cremation process involves
Some families want to know the detail of the cremation itself, and others would rather not. If you do: the cremator holds one casket and one only. It reaches around 900°C, and takes two to five hours. You’re welcome to be there, and some families choose to travel with the person who died to the crematorium.
Questions families ask us
Yes. Most families who choose cremation have a service first. You can hold it at our chapel, a church, a marae, or somewhere that mattered to them.
The cremation itself takes two to five hours. The ashes are usually ready to collect a couple of days later.
You can keep them, scatter them somewhere that mattered, inter them in a cemetery, divide them between family members, keep a small amount in a keepsake, or plant a tree. There is no time limit on deciding.
It is worth checking first. Councils have rules about some public places, and tikanga Māori avoids food-gathering areas, on land or at sea. We will tell you what applies where you are thinking of.
No. Everyone in our care receives hygiene and preparation care either way, and we don’t charge for it. Embalming becomes worth discussing if it’ll be more than a few days until the funeral, or if you want a viewing.
Yes, and families often do. Letters, photographs, a favourite jumper. There are two restrictions for cremation: no batteries, and no large pieces of glass.
Yes. Tell us and we’ll arrange it.
Yes. We have a specialised facility for it and we never charge, even if we didn’t arrange the funeral.
Yes, but you will need certificates and declarations for the airline and for customs, and the ashes have to be hermetically sealed. We handle both.
Talk it through with someone
You do not need to have the answers before you call. We will listen, explain the cremation options and guide you through what happens next.
