The final unidentified victims of the February earthquake will be buried just before the first anniversary of the disaster.
It has not been possible to formally identify four of the people killed in the CTV building in Christchurch which collapsed in the 6.3-magnitude quake on 22 February.
One or two caskets of unidentified remains will be interred in a communal grave at a specially constructed site at Avonhead Cemetery.
Police family liaison officer Mark Harrison said the interment had to wait until all avenues of identification had been exhausted.
He said the burial has been timed to coincide with the anniversary in February 2012, in order to spare overseas families repeated trips to New Zealand.
