[7] Te Rauparaha died in 1849 and contemporary sources say he was buried near the front of the church, though he may have later been secretly reinterred on Kapiti Island.

This soil had reputedly been brought from to New Zealand on the Tainui canoe from Rangiatea or Ra'iatea in the Leeward Islands and kept safe for centuries.

[9][10] During the original construction of the church in the late 1840s, large tōtara logs had to be floated down rivers at nearby Ohau and Waikawa.

The curved sanctuary railing of black maire wood was carved in a Māori style, with each post having a different design.

Stylised figures were not used because some Europeans at the time would have found them offensive in a church, though carvings of six demigods were included on a pulpit installed in 1950.

[14] A carpenter named Edward Prince, who had arrived in Wellington in 1841, was employed in making the window frames, as well as some other unspecified work.