Watch NZH Local Focus: Dying for a coffee? Now there's a Death Cafe

By Kaysha Brownlie

Death - it's not exactly a conversation starter - especially when it's your own death that's up for discussion.

"A lot of people don't talk about their own mortality, it's scary," says Funeral Director Nick Robertson.

But through coffee, cake and conversation the staff at Gentle Touch Funeral Services hope their Death Cafe will help turn this taboo into table talk.

Fellow funeral director Julie O'Brien says there is nothing to be scared of.

"You can guarantee in life we're going to be born, we're going to pay tax and we're going to die."

And talking about the inevitable is exactly what the cafe consists of.

Mrs Robertson makes it clear the cafe is not counselling. "It's not a grief session, it's just somewhere you can come and talk and ask those questions that others might not want to talk about or might not want to answer for you".

And a popular question?

Mrs O'Brien says: "What happens to (artificial) hips and knee joints, bizarrely, that's a big one.... They get saved up and then normally the crematorium will take them in, replace them with money and give money to local charity."

"A lot of people have so many misconceptions and we are here for people to ask questions and to squash those misconceptions," Mrs Robertson says.

Plenty of misconceptions have been 'squashed' since 2011, when the first Death Cafe started in the UK.

It's now a global phenomenon with nearly 50,000 death cafes around the world, including the first in Hawke's Bay at Gentle Touch Funeral Services.

"Just because you talk about [death] and arrange it doesn't mean you're gonna die tomorrow," Mrs O'Brien says.

The next Death Cafe is happening in October - it's a gold coin donation and proceeds will be given to Cranford Hospice.

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