Sir Edmund Hilary Passes Away

The first man to scale Mount Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary has died aged 88.

Regarded by many as one of the greatest New Zealanders in the country's history, he shot to international stardom when he climbed Mount Everest in 1953.

In recent years his health had been failing but he made a final visit in January 2007 to Antarctica, the scene of another of his triumphs.

He was made a Knight of Order of the British Empire in 1953 and 42 years later, the Queen bestowed on him her highest honour - a knighthood in the Order of Garter.

An interesting note is that Sir Edmund Hillary was defeated in his first attempt to climb Joske's Thumb in Fiji and of course he later went on to scale the world's highest mountain, Everest. Sir Edmund did return to Fiji, however, and managed to conquer the Thumb many years later.