Panic over parents’ sunken grave
Pair say about 70 plots affected by deluge and fear more issues as wet days continue
When Amy Carter attends a burial at Kauae Cemetery, she checks on her wha¯nau headstones too.
She normally finds them clean and tidy, just as she left them, but this month her parents’ plot was dramatically different.
“What’s happened here? My God, there’s a big hole!” she said.
Her parents’ grave is one of “about 70” at Kauae and Rotorua cemeteries that have sunk as a result of torrential rain on April 29, according to the Rotorua Lakes Council.
Carter contacted the council after finding her parents’, grandparents’ and aunt’s graves were sinking.
“We are not complaining, it’s just sad,” she told the
“The council has been very, very helpful. We just want them to hurry up because if we have another heavy rain the graves might open up.
“I would expect it to get worse with the rains we are getting,” she said.
Carter’s sister, Linda Uluave, said most of the wha¯nau were buried next to the sisters’ uncle, Sir Howard Morrison, and the headstones cost about $4500 each.
“They might be dead but we still love them a lot and we like to take care of the graves,” she said.
“We just hope our kids will do the same for us,” Carter added.
The sisters estimated the worst hole in their parents’ grave was about 75cm deep, where the soil had cracked and separated.
“You know I’d hate for a kid to fall in, they’d be really traumatised,” Uluave said. “It’s all about whakapapa here, it helps the kids understand it.”