SocietyJuly 23, 2024

The cost of dying: Breaking down the expenses of two recent funerals

Guest writer

It’s Death Week on The Spinoff, so we’re switching up our usual Cost of Being format. Instead of exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, we’re looking at the costs involved with death and dying. Here are two examples of what it can cost to farewell a loved one – both on the pricier side.

A non-religious, higher-end Pākehā funeral

How are you connected to the person you farewelled? She was my mother.

Who organised the funeral and sorted all the related admin? Family – my dad, sisters and me.

Total cost: $23,480

How were the costs covered? My dad covered it all, I guess out of his and my mum’s savings. It wasn’t an extravagant or lavish funeral but we wanted it to be nice, and to have lots of people who loved her there. At least a couple of hundred came.

Had the person put any money aside for their death-related costs? No, I don’t think so.

Breakdown of costs:

Funeral home/director (often invoiced as “professional services”): $4,780 – the local funeral home.

Transfer of deceased, mortuary fees/preparation of body, medical fees, death certificate etc: $1,460.50

Newspaper/online death notice/obituary: $611 (the cost really gets up there if you go beyond the bare minimum detail!)

Venue: $4,800 – a venue usually used for weddings and other events near our family home in Auckland. We are Pākehā and not religious so there was no church, marae or other obvious cultural or community location for us to use, we could afford it and we think our mum would’ve liked it. Catering (tea/coffee/juice and scones/sandwiches etc) was included in the fee.

Hearse: $440 – owned and organised by the funeral director.

Celebrant/clergy: $650 – a celebrant who was recommended to us.

Flowers: $880 – a lot, but they looked lovely and those coffin arrangements are huuuuge.

Service sheets/funeral booklets: Designed by a friend who wouldn’t accept payment.

AV services (livestreaming, photo tributes etc) $3,013.50. Pricey, but it was nice that friends and family overseas could watch the funeral.

Cremation costs: $945.

Casket/urn: $1,940 for the casket, organised and supplied by the funeral director. I think it was cheaper because it was a cremation-specific one. $436 for a woven flax box for the ashes.

Burial plot, headstone and associated fees: N/A – are yet to decide if we’re getting one.

Wake/post-funeral function: $4,571 – drinks and food at a local bar for anyone who wanted to come.

A large-scale farewell for a Sāmoan church minister

How are you connected to the person you farewelled? He was my grandfather.

Ethnicity: Sāmoan.

Location: Auckland.

Total cost: $80,000-$100,000.

Who organised the funeral and sorted all the related admin? His children, my aunt and uncle.

How were the costs covered? My grandfather had saved money up ($136,000) so it was all covered – he was highly regarded in the church and there were a lot of gifts (monetary and material) for those that showed alofa and came to farewell him. There was money received also from those who came to farewell him.

Had the person put any money aside for their death-related costs? Yes, because of his church position, there were many dignitaries to share gifts with and receive.

Breakdown of costs:

Funeral home/director (often invoiced as “professional services”): Over $10,000.

Transfer of deceased, mortuary fees/preparation of body, medical fees, death certificate etc: Included in above.

Casket/urn: Unsure, think it was included in above.

Burial plot, headstone and associated fees (if applicable): The plot had been prepaid when his wife passed away. (A burial plot in Auckland is $2,200 to $8,400, burial fees are in the range of $1,300-$2,000, and digging fees are $1,200 to $2,000. Headstones range from $1,500-$4,000 or higher.)

Hearse: Part of funeral director’s professional services.

Death notice: N/A

Venue: Church – the donation in return for all gifts received was $20,000.

Catering: $5,000+. We had to gift food to those who travelled from afar to farewell him during his time of rest at the family home before he was buried, as well as feeding everyone who visited before the funeral.

Celebrant/clergy: Money for pastors (estimated $5,000) and families of church ($5,000).

Flowers: Mostly gifted, spent approx. $1,000.

Service sheets/funeral booklets: Donated.

AV services (livestreaming, photo tributes etc): No livestreaming, all AV services provided at the church pre and post burial.

Wake/post-funeral function: Part of the venue fees.

Any other major costs? Gifting… hosting of family members from overseas… lots and lots of exchanges of fine mats, food and money. My grandfather had saved a lot for that. His funeral in its entirety had cost approximately $80,000-$100,000 from the time of death to the last family member who travelled back home after the wake/post-funeral function. My grandfather had saved a lot of money and fine mats from his attendance and support at other funerals and ceremonies during his lifetime so this was reciprocation for that. I don’t know how much was received from those who farewelled him or whether it balanced out.

Keep going!

One of the five new raised pedestrian crossings being planned for Thorndon Quay.

OPINIONWellingtonJuly 23, 2024

Windbag: The pedestrian crossing problem on Thorndon Quay

Joel MacManus

Wellington editor

One of the five new raised pedestrian crossings being planned for Thorndon Quay.

Wellington has to do a lot of work redesigning its streets to be more people-friendly. But this particular design went too far.

Windbag is The Spinoff’s Wellington issues column, written by Wellington editor Joel MacManus. It’s made possible thanks to the support of The Spinoff Members.

There are some people who get into local politics because they want to influence change. There are others who are just there to complain about change. It’s a pretty easy gig, really. Any time the council does anything, you run to the newspaper with some quotes calling said thing “madness” or “crazy”.

Councillors Diane Calvert, Tony Randle, and Ray Chung recently appeared on the front page of The Post, looking grumpy about changes to Thorndon Quay. These three councillors are no strangers to complaining about progressive street changes. They’ve tried, repeatedly, to shut down the Golden Mile upgrade, and consistently opposed new bike and bus infrastructure. Calvert once called a bike lane “an assault on democracy”. Randle campaigned on improving bus services to Johnsonville, then once elected, complained about a plan to put in a bus lane to Johnsonville.

Their latest complaint? There are too many pedestrian crossings being built on Thorndon Quay. This time, though, they have a point.

The $55m Thorndon Quay upgrade was originally a Let’s Get Wellington Moving project. It was handed back to Wellington City Council after the programme was dissolved. It has the hallmarks of everything that went wrong with LGWM: it’s taken way too long, it’s too expensive, it’s over-engineered, it accumulated mountains of consultant’s reports, and yet, it still doesn’t seem to know what it is trying to achieve.

The 130-page business case makes it clear the Thorndon Quay project is about moving more people on buses and bikes. The council’s webpage for the project is headlined: “Moving over 11000 commuters a day? Absolutely”.

The third point in the business case – and a much lower priority – was about creating a nicer experience for people walking through the area. The documents show consultants considered a long list of pedestrian options: adding zebra crossings, moving crossings to align with bus stops, adding traffic islands, changing some slip lanes, better seating and lighting.

But instead of making minor pedestrian improvements, the proposed design goes way overboard. Five raised pedestrian crossings with traffic lights, plus a sixth non-raised crossing with traffic lights. It’s a big-budget, gold standard approach, but it goes against the primary aim of the project. Raised crossings and excessive traffic lights will make bus and bike access worse, not better.

Metlink group manager Samantha Gain is wary of criticising the project, but gave this carefully worded statement: “Metlink prefers the installation of traffic control devices, like speed bumps and raised crossings, to be minimised on high frequency bus routes. They can accentuate wear and tear on our buses and reduce ride quality for our passengers.”

Thorndon Quay is the busiest bus corridor outside of the city centre, and is only going to get busier. The northern suburbs are set for a population boom from the upzoning allowed in the District Plan. Thorndon Quay is also the busiest bike corridor anywhere in the city, and that’s set to rise too. The new harbour seawall currently being built will have a shared cycling and walking path running on top of it. With e-bikes becoming increasingly popular, it’s going to unlock thousands of easy and safe journeys per day for commuters from the Hutt to the city via Thorndon Quay.

A bird’s-eye view of the Thorndon Quay redesign. Image: WCC

The changes will make it slightly harder to drive, and it will mean fewer on-street parking spots – but that’s a necessary part of progress. The car parking changes have already raised the ire of Thorndon Quay business owners, who took the council to court over a previous switch from angled to parallel parking. (The group won on process, but the council won’t have to undo any changes).

Wellington, like all New Zealand cities, is going to need to do a lot of work redesigning streets to cater to a growing population, with low-carbon and more space-efficient transport. We have to undo 70 years of transport planning that didn’t consider any transport but the private car. As a general principle, pedestrians should always come first when designing streets. But in this case, Thorndon Quay serves primarily as an arterial route, not as a pedestrian destination. It’s an industrial area, backing onto a railway yard, shadowed by a motorway overpass. It’s never going to be a cutesy neighbourhood shopping centre.

It’s not going to be viable for this project to continue as-is. Some of these crossings will have to be reconfigured so it can actually serve as a useful bus lane. Streets can either be a great place to be, or a convenient space to move through. But it’s very hard to be both. Part of good urban design is picking your priorities – and in the case of Thorndon Quay, they got it wrong.