Summit Climb for Sir Edmund Hillary
On Saturday 12th April 5 students from Room 21 and Miss Adamson went to One Tree Hill to represent Elm Park School in the summits climb in memory of Sir Edmund Hillary.
The climb to the top of One Tree Hill was the 29th climb in memory of Sir Ed. Climbs are taking place all over the North and the South Island. It was New Zealand’s way of remembering a great man who was extraordinary in lots of different ways. He had a passion for walking so this remembarance for him would have been one that would have made him smile.
At 4pm students, teachers and family members from all over Auckland gathered to pay their final respect to Sir Edmund Hillary. Each school who participated also brought a stone with them that had their school name on it. All these stones from all the summit climbs from all over New Zealand will be gathered together and made into a cairn in memory of Sir Ed at the foot of Mount Ruapehu . This will be an everlasting memory at a place where Sir Edmund Hillary first fell in love with mountains.
At the beginning of the walk there was a speech about Sir Edmund Hillary from the organisers of the Summits for Sir Ed Trust. He spoke about his achievements and why these walks were such a great idea.
It was a challenging walk for us and fun at the same time. Some of the parents found the walk difficult as it wasn’t in their habit to walk up so high and far. When we made it to the summit of One Tree Hill we listened to a few people from the Nepalese community talk about Sir Edmund Hillary and then we held a one minute silence for him.
Walking down the hill was much easier and quicker. We also took a short cut which meant we reached the bottom in record time. Some of us were tired after the walk so we couldn’t imagine how Sir Edmund Hillary felt after climbing Mount Everest.
We are glad that we all took part in this walk and that we have remembered such a wonderful man. This will be an everlasting memory for all of us. We have learned a lot about him this Term and we all really appreciate what an EXTRAORDINARY MAN HE REALLY WAS!!
By MH, JW, JM, PK, LA & MM Room 21
