My Explorer

Sir Edmund Hillary was a very famous explorer.  He was the first person to climb Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world.

He was born on July 1919 in Auckland and died on the 11 January 2008, he was 88 when he died. He has a brother Rex and a sister June he also had a wife Louise and they have three children Peter, Sarah and Belinda. He was only 16 when he started climbing his first  major mountain.

His main expedition was when he climbed  Mount Everest May 29 1953. It took 8 weeks for him to climb Mount Everest. Before British had received the approval to make an attempt at climbing Mount Everest. The government of Nepal would only allow one expedition a year, so this was a big deal. The leader of the expedition, John Hunt and he asked Hillary to join in the climb.

Finally he reached the summit of Mount Everest. At the final camp Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay got chosen to climb the final bit of the mountain and the other team was Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans. The team of Tom and Charles tried first, but they failed to make it to the top.They got in 300 feet, but had to turn back. Then on may 28 Edmund and Tenzing tried and they did it but they has very little time because up there the air is really thin so when their time was up they came back down to celebrate.

He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth the second after reaching the top of Everest. This is why you call him Sir.

Sir Edmund Hillary was the most famous New Zealander and the first person to climb Mount Everest in the world, he was a very special to New Zealand and is now on the New Zealand 5 dollar note.