FAQ

Depending on how or where they died, there are a number of steps that will need to be followed. If you are unsure at any time, please contact our Funeral Director and we’ll do our best to answer any questions or concerns you may have.

Once you have decided on who your Funeral Director will be and when your loved one has died, we ask if the family can give us a call. We will contact the Rest-home, Hospice or Hospital to confirm the passing.

We will arrange for the transfer into our care once the GP or Nurse Practitioner has been to confirm the passing. Sometimes (during a long weekend etc) the GP or Nurse Practitioner will ask us to transfer the person into our care and they will come and visit when they are free.

We will meet with the family or representative to discuss the funeral service and cover other paperwork that will need to be completed. If family are out of town we can also send paperwork via email.

Once we have all the necessary documentation we will forward this to a Medical Referee (who is also a Doctor) who will examine the paperwork and if they are satisfied they will issue us with a permit or ‘Permission’ for the cremation to take place.

We will work in the background to put everything together.

After the service we will arrange for the Death Certificate to be issued (through Internal Affairs).

This is a very basic overview of what happens, but we are more than happy to assist you with any questions that you have.

When a family or representative notifies us of a death, we will usually ask for the following information; The name, phone number and contact details of the person phoning us or the person who will be our main contact throughout the funeral process. We will also ask about the deceased, their name, relationship, friend or family,where they are, their address etc.

At the meeting to arrange the funeral we will also ask for the information we require to register the death and order a death certificate. If families can have the deceased parent’s names and their marriage details this will be helpful, but this is not all needed in the first meeting about the arrangements.

Provided there are no legal impediments, the funeral generally takes place within four to seven days following death. It may be necessary to wait a little longer if family overseas need to travel to New Zealand. For a Funeral that will be delayed we can arrange a long-term embalming to enable families to visit before the Funeral day.

Howick Funeral Home has private viewing facilities to allow friends and family to spend time with the deceased if required.

In choosing between burial or cremation, the deceased’s wishes are usually followed. If their wishes are not known, the family will make this choice. Still favoured by many, burial allows the family a place to go where they can remember the person who has died. For a burial to take place, a burial plot will need to be purchased, an interment fee is paid for the maintenance of the grave site, and a memorial or headstone can be purchased at a later date.

Cremation offers more flexibility in terms of cost and choosing your loved one’s final resting place. Ashes can be buried in a memorial garden, scattered or held at home.

That largely depends on the family’s wishes; you may wish to scatter them in a special place, place them in a Wall of Remembrance or a Memory Garden. Howick Funeral Home provides a selection of tasteful urns for ashes if desired.

One of the major costs of any funeral is the casket. At Howick Funeral Home we have a casket selection room that offers a wide range of options from a simple cremation casket to the more elaborate traditional caskets.