Biography writing week 8 - by Taeshell Makita

Student's in class 3 have been writing biographies about 'special people' on a local or global scale. Here is Taeshell's biography about her selected special person.

Sir Edmund Percival Hillary

Sir Edmund Hillary was born on July 20, 1919 and died on January 11, 2008. He grew up in New Zealand, Auckland and lived on Grand drive located in Eastern Auckland. If you noticed Sir Edmund Hillary is actually on New Zealand’s 5 dollar note, he is very famous because he was the first person to climb Mt Everest. Where he went for Primary was Tuakau Primary. For college he attended Auckland Grammar School and then studied maths and science at University of Auckland.

Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay was the first people to climb to the summit of Mt Everest. They both achieved this huge goal in 1953. Both of them went through a lot during their trip up Mt Everest. Such as blistering winds, dangerous heights and freezing days. But he was determined to make it to the top along with his buddie Tenzing Norgay. Eventually they both made it and were very proud of what they have achieved. If you were to look on a New Zealand five-dollar note, you would see that Sir Edmund Hillary is the figure on it. I think that he is on the five dollar bill because of his historical achievement for being the first New Zealand person to climb Mt Everest.

Sir Edmund Hillary became a famous person after he climbed the tallest mountain in the world (Mt Everest). But before he had accomplished that he had already been successful with climbing other mountains. In 1939 Mt Olivier was the first mountain Sir Edmund Hillary climbed. He then decided to join the Air Force and trained to be a navigator in 1943, he promised himself after the war that he would be a mountaineer. In the year 1945, Sir Edmund Hillary was a flying  boat navigator in the Pacific during the war. He got badly burnt and got sent back home. He spent the next few years climbing in the Southern Alps, including Mt Cook. 1949, Sir Edmund Hillary travelled to Europe and climbed in the Austrian and Swiss Alps.

Sir Edmund Hillary married Louise Rose. But sadly in 1975, Lady Hillary and their youngest child Belinda were killed in a plane crash in Nepal. He was really devastated and he went through depression. Ten years after the accident he recovered and married June Mulgrew, widow of his friend Peter Mulgrew who died in 979 during the Erebus plane crash.

Even though Sir Edmund Hillary has passed on, he is still a legend. I think he probably inspired people to keep on going, even when they feel like giving up. He was a great person and has achieved many different things. Especially climbing mountains, he was really good at that.