Hillary and Tenzing on Everest. (Royal Geographical Society).
Hillary and Tenzing on Everest. (Royal Geographical Society).
In one year New Zealand plunged from the summit of optimism with the ascent of Mt Everest to the darkest depths of despair with the Tangiwai rail disaster on Christmas Eve, which killed 151 people.
Just as the Everest story had its hero in the young Edmund Hillary, Tangiwai produced stories of great courage, tenacity and initiative among ordinary people trapped by a catastrophic event; men such as Cyril Ellis and John Holman.
The 1953 Herald would probably have chosen Ellis, a 27-year-old Post Office worker and Holman, a printer from Wellington, as New Zealanders of the Year for their efforts in rescuing 21 of 22 passengers in one carriage of the stricken Auckland Express.
It featured in their story prominently on Boxing Day.
Ellis was driving from Taihape to Rangataua just before midnight when he noticed the water was over the trusses at the Sulphur Creek bridge.
He did not know it at the time but a huge discharge of water from Crater Lake on Mt Ruapehu was surging down the mountain and would sweep away the Whangaehu River bridge moments before the train arrived.
Speaking to a Herald correspondent at a family Christmas gathering, he said he had tried to flag down the driver by waving his torch.
"I jumped clear when the engine was 20 yards away. The train went straight on over the bridge.
"Half-way across, the engine nose-dived into the river. You never heard such a noise. It sounded as if the engine had exploded.
"Car Z came to a dead stop on the brink and then keeled over at a sharp angle, but the coupling held.
"I tore like a 'bat out of hell,' got into the carriage and shouted: 'Everybody get out into the carriages behind. It will go any minute'.
"With that the coupling cracked. We all went over the brink. It was as if we were spinning round in a barrel of water.
"When the car came to rest on its side I put my elbow through one of the upper windows.
"John Holman asked me to help get his wife out. The water was nearly over our heads. There was only a three-foot gap between the water and the windows.
"Luggage was strewn everywhere. I was yelling out to people to stop panicking.
The Auckland Express lies wrecked at Tangiwai following the eruption of Mt Ruapehu on Christmas Eve 1953. (NZ Herald Archive)
"We continued the rescues. I was standing on a seat inside and John was fishing people along to me.
"We passed the torch to each other as we needed it.
"Finally there were only two men left, including one of about 80.
"A lavatory door had fallen across the old man's legs, pinning him down. The other sat on the door, with his feet caught under a seat.
"A dead girl lay across a seat with her head back in the silt on the bottom of the car."
Ten years later, when the Herald celebrated its 100th anniversary with a look back at a century of great news stories, Cyril Ellis' role at Tangiwai was given much greater prominence than the climbing of Everest.
IN HINDSIGHT: SCALING MONUMENTAL HEIGHTS Looking back from a distance of more than half a century, we reverse our choice for New Zealander of the Year.
This is not meant to devalue the deeds of Cyril Ellis, John Holman and the other heroes of Tangiwai. On the contrary, their efforts are regarded just as highly now as when the disaster happened.
"It is said that the human spirit shines brightest in adversity and it shone brightly on December 24, 1953, when men like Cyril Ellis, John Holman, Arthur Bell and William Inglis were saving lives at a blighted spot south of Ohakune," said our editorial marking the 50th anniversary.
What changed was the way that Sir Edmund Hillary came to be seen as the personification of an ideal national character - brave, pragmatic and, above all, modest.
When he died in 2008, a Herald editorial which summed up what he meant to the nation, said he would always be remembered for scaling two monumental heights.
"The first was his ascent of Mt Everest, the world's highest mountain, on May 29, 1953. The second was his unblemished subsequent career of service and high endeavour.
"If the feat of Sir Edmund and Tenzing Norgay in becoming the first men to stand atop Everest turned heads around the world, his head was not about to be turned by the subsequent adulation.
"The humility of his reaction endeared the beekeeper's son to the world.
"Over time, Sir Edmund cemented his position as the ultimate figure of a nation's pride precisely because he embodied the values and way of life to which most New Zealanders of his, and any other generation, aspire.
"He was craggy in countenance and of raw-boned physique in the best tradition of a backcountry farmer, with a character of constancy, modesty and utter determination to succeed.
"Those qualities were immediately apparent after the conquest of Everest, one of the defining acts of the 20th century. 'We've knocked the bastard off,' he said on returning from the summit.
"The achievement placed him in the company of the renowned explorers and adventurers who had gone where no other had gone before - the likes of Columbus, Livingstone, Amundsen and Lindbergh.
Sir Edmund Hillary relaxes in the chair presented to him at a civic reception in Auckland in 1953.
"Indeed, reflecting upon his life, Sir Edmund declared that his most worthwhile achievement had been the building of schools, hospitals, medical clinics and airstrips in Nepal.
"It was as though conquering Everest had merely laid the foundation for a life's work on behalf of the local Sherpas. 'That has given me more satisfaction than a footprint on a mountain,' he said.
If the words don't say it well enough, you only have to recall the large crowds who waited in line all night - often in drizzling rain - to pay their respects to Sir Ed when his body lay in state at Holy Trinity Cathedral.
Among them were young and old, people from all walks of life and many countries - especially Nepal and India - as well as the Maori and Pakeha of his native land.
