Funeral director to open private crematorium

Hamilton's first private crematorium is being built in Te Rapa and should be up and running by early November. Photo: Mark Taylor/Stuff.

A Tauranga funeral company owner will be providing Hamilton's first private cremator – it will be 17 tonnes, pink, and shipped in from Florida.

It will arrive in two forty foot containers, and once constructed, will take people of any shape and size.

The private crematorium will be on site with funeral director Carla Vaetoe's ​businesses - Simply Cremations and Simplicity Funerals in Te Rapa.

It is due to open in November.

Carla owns four funeral businesses in total: three in Hamilton and one in Tauranga.

Since 1963, all cremations in the city have been done by Hamilton City Council at Hamilton Park Cemetery.

But Carla, who conducts more than 540 cremations a year from her businesses, thinks it makes more economic sense for her to build her own crematorium.

"It's not about putting a big burner in the middle of town, it's about offering people more options."

Some people might feel funny about having refreshments while mum's getting cremated, so having the cremator there means a "one stop shop" of services on site.

"As funeral directors we want to make sure the family feels like they are the only ones going through this."

Carla says she offers cremations in sturdy cardboard caskets, but currently has to transport the bodies over to Tauranga City Council, because Hamilton City Council does not cremate the cardboard she uses.

The new cremator will mean she no longer has to do so and she has offered cardboard cremation at a price to other funeral homes in Hamilton.

Carla maintains she is not setting up the crematorium to undercut the council's business, but because she does not want to travel to Tauranga all the time to cremate cardboard.

"We get a lot of people in their 70s and 80s ringing up and saying: 'put me in a cardboard box'."

Carla offers the cardboard casket at $700 including the loan of an outer casket during a service. A traditional casket costs about $1450, she said.

The price of her cremation service will remain at $2250 - this is without a ceremony and includes the removal of the body, the cremation, the return of ashes and obtaining of medical documentation.

Carla believes the rising popularity of cremations is to do with increasing burial plot costs.

"Unfortunately in Auckland you're looking at $7000 or 8000 for the plot, and in Hamilton it's around $4000 - and that's just for the hole in the ground and the digging."

Direct cremations (without a ceremony) are becoming more popular, says Carla.

Hamilton City Council parks and recreations manager Maria Barrie says the council conducts between 1800-1900 cremations per year for the wider Waikato area.

They currently have two cremators on site, and may install a third if high demand remains.

Barrie said the council offers a range of services impartially, including eco burial, traditional burial and cremation.

The council cremates some types of cardboard, but must keep in mind the rigidity of the cardboard for safety reasons, she says.

"We do have concerns some cardboard casket products are simply too flimsy for transportation and safe cremation."

The costs for cremation (no other service included) are $620 for an adult, $305 for a child and $125 for a stillborn or under one year old.

Barrie said Hamilton Park Cemetery were comfortable with the services they offered and weren't worried about another cremator starting up.

-Stuff/Ellen O'Dwyer.

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