A crowd of about 100 people, including funeral directors and local councillors, braved yesterday morning's frosty weather to open and bless the new Hastings chapel at the Hastings cemetery.
Kaumatua Jerry Hapuku and the mayors of Hastings and Napier, Sandra Hazlehurst and Bill Dalton, presided over the ceremony.
Hastings councillor Malcolm Dixon, who chairs the committee that manages the facility, said it was a very fitting occasion.
"This is a place of reflection and the celebration of the lives of loved ones we have lost. The beautiful new building with its glass wall providing a vista over the cemetery lawns and bringing in light is a special place in which to hold these very important and personal ceremonies."
