Wanaka Residents’ Association president Roger Gardiner said several years ago the association was approached by gravedigger Don McKinlay about providing a shelter for mourners in winter and a structure for contemplation for visitors to the cemetery.
He said ‘‘it turned out to be the biggest and the most stressful project the association has ever taken on but the result is worth it, as many visitors have told us how impressed they are by the structure.’’
Steve Armstrong designed the Wanaka lychgate based on lychgates found in English churchyards and it was built using traditional methods and materials including mortise and tenon joints, wooden nails and recycled Canadian timber sourced from Christchurch.
Two years and more than $30,000 later the structure is 99% finished but Mr Gardiner said it was time to thank the many who had contributed everything from money to labour and materials.
A lychgate is a roofed gateway to a churchyard and can also be used to shelter coffins.
It can also represent the transition from this world into the next as the coffin passed from one side to the other.
Queenstown Lakes District deputy mayor Calum MacLeod will officially open the Lychgate at 3pm this Sunday.
