{"id":339945,"date":"2026-03-21T00:04:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T00:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/339945\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T00:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T00:04:16","slug":"cemetery-mess-disappoints-bereaved-mum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/339945\/","title":{"rendered":"Cemetery ‘mess’ disappoints bereaved mum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Weeds growing \u201chigher than headstones\u201d and other recent maintenance issues at Rotorua cemeteries have left mourners disappointed.<\/p>\n

By Mathew Nash, Local Democracy Reporter<\/p>\n

Rotorua Lakes Council says the issue is good growing conditions, rather than any cutbacks, and issues are addressed through scheduled maintenance.<\/p>\n

The council manages the Rotorua Cemetery and Crematorium on Sala St as well as the Mamaku, Reporoa and Ng\u0101kuru cemeteries.<\/p>\n

It also operates and maintains Kauae Cemetery on Ngongotah\u0101 Rd, although a separate board of trustees governs it.<\/p>\n

Karen Gardiner is a regular at Kauae Cemetery, making weekly visits to the grave of her daughter Kristi-Rae Ruri-Gardiner, who died in a 2010 car accident.<\/p>\n

\"Kristi-Rae<\/p>\n

Kristi-Rae Ruri-Gardiner’s grave site at Kauae Cemetery. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old was buried in the blue dress she had planned to wear at her school ball.<\/p>\n

Until Christmas, Gardiner had no complaints about the maintenance of her daughter\u2019s resting place.<\/p>\n

But over the past few months, things had gone \u201cbackwards\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the worst I\u2019ve seen in 15 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt used to get beautifully mowed all the time, but lately they\u2019ll mow down the middle, but they\u2019ll leave everything on the side, so you\u2019ve got weeds growing up higher than headstones.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said it was \u201cridiculous\u201d that another section of the cemetery, where the ashes of her parents and grandmother are interred, was no longer mowed regularly.<\/p>\n

Gardiner maintains the gravesite herself, but understands that others might not be able to.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot everybody lives in Rotorua, and I think they would be gutted if they came and saw the mess that\u2019s there at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

She paid $1000 for the plot, which included maintenance as part of the overall package, she said.<\/p>\n

The conditions at Kauae and Sala St were a talking point on a popular local Facebook page last weekend after an anonymous user posted images of what they called the \u201cneglected, overgrown and disrespected\u201d facility.<\/p>\n

\"Weeds<\/p>\n

Weeds overgrow near headstones at Rotorua Cemetery and Crematorium on Sala St. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n

Other commenters shared their disappointment at the level of maintenance of the burial sites, calling it \u201cdisgusting\u201d, \u201cdisgraceful\u201d and \u201cdisappointing\u201d.<\/p>\n

When Local Democracy Reporting visited Kauae Cemetery on Tuesday, it appeared to have been recently maintained.<\/p>\n

Sala St was also well maintained, other than large weeds around older headstones.<\/p>\n

Rotorua Lakes Council community experience group manager Alex Wilson confirmed council staff were at Kauae Cemetery on Monday and Tuesday mowing and weeding, as part of scheduled maintenance.<\/p>\n

Spraying was scheduled for later in the week.<\/p>\n

Wilson said she understood there had also been concerns raised about the condition of two of Rotorua\u2019s council-managed cemeteries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know cemeteries are deeply important places for wh\u0101nau.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile overall staffing levels have not changed, we have some vacancies that we are actively working to fill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A photo of overgrown grass and weeds at Kauae Cemetery, posted on social media last weekend. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n

She said there had been no changes to maintenance budgets over the past 18 months and blamed the recent growth on summer conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring peak growing periods, vegetation can grow quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe encourage members of the community to contact our customer service team if they notice any overgrowth at cemeteries, parks or reserves, so it can be addressed as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said plot maintenance fees paid for the \u201clong-term upkeep\u201d of the entire cemetery, but did not cover headstone cleaning or repairs.<\/p>\n

Cemetery and crematorium management and maintenance were previously the responsibility of Infracore, until the council-controlled organisation was reintegrated into the core council team just over a year ago.<\/p>\n

Kauae Urup\u0101\/Cemetery Trust Board trustee Kingi Biddle said nobody had approached him about the issue, but the board would work alongside the council to ensure good upkeep.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact it has not been brought up to us does not mean it is not happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cKauae has been a resting place for us long before a cemetery was there, and we want to make sure our loved ones have a safe place to rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Weeds growing \u201chigher than headstones\u201d and other recent maintenance issues at Rotorua cemeteries have left mourners disappointed. By…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,1756,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-339945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-tauranga-bay-of-plenty","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}