For at least half that time, he has been working towards providing them some form of shelter during their visits.
Now, Mr McKinlay's vision is becoming a reality thanks to the installation of a $16,500 lychgate at the cemetery, funded by the Wanaka Residents' Association, of which he is a member.
A lychgate is a traditional English churchyard structure comprising a roofed gateway formerly used at burials for sheltering a coffin.
During the past decade of his cemetery job, Mr McKinlay had become increasingly aware of the need for such a structure in Wanaka.
The town's increasing population meant the cemetery was filling up faster, bringing more visitors needing shelter from the weather.
''People come down here every day and there's just nowhere for them, particularly during the winter, to be able to sit ... and ponder.''
Declining attendance numbers at church had increased the number of graveside services, for which the lychgate could also cater.
The structure, expected to be completed within a couple of weeks, used ''very traditional'' construction methods and materials including mortise and tenon joints, wooden nails and a slate roof.
Recycled Canadian oregon timber had been sourced from Christchurch and cut and prepared off-site.
The lychgate has special significance to builder Brian Murphy, who has built several others in Dunedin.
''It means a lot to me to come and build this with my parents and a brother being buried here.''
As a coffin passed through the gate, it also represented a transition ''from this world into the next'', Mr Murphy said.
Wanaka Residents' Association president Sally Battson said the organisation had accrued two years of its annual $5000 Queenstown Lakes District Council grant to help fund the lychgate.
That had been supplemented with other donations, but about $5000 was still needed to cover costs and contributions were welcome.
