Sir Edmund Hillary -- Tops the List of Greatest Living New Zealanders...

There is probably only one thing wrong with these recent poll results, Sir Edmund Hillary died more than 18 months ago on 11 January 2008. Sir Edmund Hillary was a fine man, a wonderful ambassador for New Zealand, and a humanitarian, at least in my reckoning.

When I was little, or perhaps younger, I wanted to climb Mt. Everest and Sir Edmund was one of the people that inspired such grand visions.

Even though Sir Edmund is dead, it seems that New Zealanders still remember his feats and his contributions. Perhaps, Sir Edmund remains alive in the hearts of many New Zealanders.

Following Sir Edmund in the list are New Zealanders who are in fact still alive: Helen Clark, the former Prime Minister; Sir Colin Meads, an All Black; and Sir Peter Snell, triple Olympic gold medallist.

Sir Edmund Hillary (1919 - 2008)

Sir Edmund Hillary passed away overnight and his passing is worthy of a blog post on my little blog. It is probably worthy of so much more but this is the best I can offer.

Why bother you might ask, well when I was growing up and much more adventurous than I am now (although in my mind I will always remain adventurous) I used to dream of climbing mountains and being like Sir Ed. I still harbor dreams of going to Nepal and Tibet and climbing mountains albeit with each passing year the mountains I aim for get shorter in stature.

For these dreams I have Sir Ed to thank--thank you!