“I felt that the service was exceptional. We were made to feel as though we were the only clients you had at that time and our wishes were no problem at all.”
Every day we help people in their time of need
After the death of a family member or close friend, it is important to know that you can depend on experienced, professional people to make all the arrangements to ensure the funeral flows smoothly.
It is important that you choose the funeral ceremony that is right for you and your family. Gee & Hickton Funeral Directors can guide you through the choices available and then we'll take care of the details to make sure everything flows smoothly on the day.
Our caring team of professionals will liaise with clergy and celebrants, doctors, hospitals, government departments, coroners and other officials, crematoriums and cemetery authorities so you don't have to worry.
We can also arrange music and musicians, including an organist, place notices in the newspapers, provide vehicles (including our classic Rolls Royce Phantom VI, imported to Wellington in 1970 for the Royal Tour), order family flowers, arrange the placement of ashes and memorials and anything else you require. Cremation services are available at our own cremation facility at Akatarawa. Repatriation is also a specialty.
Powerpoint presentations are available and we can also provide a tape recording or video of the services, as well as a memorial book.
Gee & Hickton has two funeral homes – Cornwall Manor in Lower Hutt and Kingswood in Upper Hutt. Each has a modern chapel and catering lounge on site along with off-street parking.
The Gee & Hickton chapels have an organ and comprehensive sound system, and we provide a recording of each service if required. Powerpoint technology is also available.
We print individual orders of service and hymn sheets to an attractive layout and with colour photos to help celebrate a life.
A range of high quality granite headstones and commemorative plaques can be viewed at our showroom. We can arrange to have headstones and plaques installed in cemeteries anywhere in Wellington or the Hutt Valley with the inscription and decorative memorabilia of your choice.
Staff at Gee & Hickton Funeral Directors are available to speak to local community groups and schools about funerals, and we are also pleased to host community groups at our premises. Please contact our manager, Gavin Murphy, on 566 3103 or gmurphy@funerals.co.nz if you would like to book a talk for your group.
Making the right choices
Gee & Hickton Funeral Directors can explain the choices available:
- The different types of ceremony, religious or not
- The best location for the service: a church or chapel, at home, at the graveside or crematorium
- Who should officiate: a priest, minister, celebrant or family members
- Whether you want to view the deceased, and where the viewing should be
- Whether you want to have a burial or cremation
- Whether you want flowers or charitable donations
- The most appropriate funeral notice
- Casket selection including eco-friendly options
- The order of service, the choice of music and hymns
- Venue for a post-funeral get together and how to arrange it
- Headstone or memorial plaque selection
- What other professional help is available
Taking care of the details
Once the choices are made, you can choose how little or how much you want Gee & Hickton's professional and experienced staff to help with all the necessary arrangements. We can take care of the following details:
- The registration of death and necessary documentation
- Contacting appropriate burial or cremation authorities, as well as contacting the doctor, coroner or hospital and collection of certificates
- Arranging national or international transportation of repatriation in New Zealand or any other country. Gee & Hickton Funeral Directors is the preferred firm for taking care of these arrangements
- Liaising with clergy or funeral celebrants, assisting with the service and organising funeral details
- Provision and preparation of casket, which you can select from our modern show room
- Embalming, when appropriate, to ensure hygienic preservation and natural presentation
- Providing viewing facilities in our modern rooms next to the chapel
- Ordering family flowers for the casket
- Providing transport to and from the funeral in our modern fleet of hearses and cars
- Preparing and placing newspaper notices locally or internationally
- Arranging monumental masonry for the headstone or memorial plaque
- Cremation at our own facility at Akatarawa
- Arranging the scattering or burial of ashes in the Hutt Valley or in other centres, as well as providing quality urns
Memorials Plaques and Headstones
Gee & Hickton can show you a range of high quality granite headstones and commemorative plaques that we can arrange to have installed in cemeteries with the inscription and decorative memorabilia of your choice. We are also able to carry out restoration work on existing headstones.
Photographs, portraits and other mementoes can be either etched (sand-carved) on to the headstone, or included in a ceramic design set onto the stone.
Sand-carved designs are usually transferred onto the stone or plaque from a photograph, or series of photographs – of the person who has died in the setting of your choice, of landscapes, flowers, pets, cars, bikes, or other mementoes that were important to their life.
Ceramic designs usually contain a colour, black and white or sepia photo of the person who has died set in an oval, square, oblong or heart-shaped ceramic shape.
We offer guarantees on granite headstones and on the craftsmanship by our Master Monumental Mason.