Takaka Death Cafe facilitator Aralyn Doiron said Death Cafe was about demystifying death and dying.

She that doing this helps to make our lives richer in many ways.

Death Cafes are an increasingly popular phenomenon worldwide, bringing strangers together to discuss death and dying; a human experience common to all people.

New Zealand's first Death Café launched in the Wellington in March 2014.

Death Café presents the opportunity to talk about the ethics, practicalities, beliefs, emotions, rituals and everything else surrounding death.

"It's an opportunity to bring death into focus," says Jon Underwood, a 42-year-old Londoner and father-of-two, one of the founders of the Death Café movement.

Underwood, who has dedicated his life to supporting those in the final stages of theirs - worries that through violent movies and video games, we consume an unhealthy and terrifying brand of death, yet never face up to the reality of our own.

The point of Death Café , inspired by the Swiss 'Cafe Mortalis', is to encourage the healthy and the living to talk about death - to intellectualise their own death and the experience of those around them, beyond the practicalities of wills and funeral choices.

Questions like, what is a good death? Does accepting that life ends make it better? How does embracing our own mortality affect others? Are all common themes at Death Café , where emotionally challenging topics are without taboo.

"To help us realise we are alive now and use our time effectively. I want people to live positively and not have regrets."

More Death Café meetings are planned for Nelson and Takaka.

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However, interest in Tauranga's Death Cafes has been disappointingly low says chairwoman, of the Tauranga's Voluntary Euthanasia Society and rest home nurse Tess Nesdale.

The society hosted its first Death Cafe in April at the Grindz Cafe, but with such low interest the society plans to review how to boost their popularity before holding more.

"I'm trying to get people to understand that death is a good thing and a peaceful thing," says Nesdale, who believes attitudes to death affect how we die, whether we fight for a last breath or go with the flow.

In recent months, regular meetings to discuss death over coffee and cake have popped up in Auckland, Tauranga and Wellington.

"People are dying to talk about it," deadpans Wellington's Death Cafe facilitator, Sophia Tara. But, she adds seriously, death is one of the Western world's top fears, alongside public speaking.

But many attendees at her monthly meetings at Trinity Unity Church in Newtown relish the chance to talk about a taboo subject.

"Fascinating to be part of an open forum for the beautiful aspect of life . . . inspired and thought-provoking," one attendee wrote. "Death needs to come out of the shadows," added another.
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• Stuff.co.nz