Hillsborough Cemetery

Wear comfortable shoes when visiting. Some may need assistance walking the long concrete pathways, especially downhill toward the waterside reserve. Some graves need headstone cleaning and weeding. Overall the cemetery is clean and there are nice flowers and resting benches overlooking the harbour.

Old cemetery mapped out sign to help coordinate you to the correct gravesite you may be looking for. Walking up and down the gentle slopes. A good clean cemetery benches to sit tap to wash hands or shoes. Nice view of the harbour.

This cemetery has stunning views from its elevated position, and looks out over Manukau Harbour. There are plenty of places to sit and take in the sights, and to rest while walking. There are a number of walkways, some of which are very steep and slippery in the wet, but most of these have hand rails. Pest control is evident at some times of the year. The cemetery itself is quite extensive, and bigger than it first appears, but in parts is on very steep ground. There are good maps on the signs to assist with locating the sections, but you may have to drive down to the area you want before walking the rest of the way. There is parking, off the road, at the top entrance on the hill, but streetside parking at the side entrance on Goodall Road. There is a short road through the cemetery at each entrance, which does provide some limited space to pull over. The grave I was looking for was in a very steep section, slippery and not marked. The site for it turned out to be not accessible and is currently being encroached on by native trees and bush, but it was a pretty gully. It seems that some of the graves for those from Costley Home were not marked, or if they were, there was never any family or resources to maintain them.

For those souls to RIP

Awesome views