KEY POINTS:
Sir Edmund Hillary's great friend and fellow Everest climber George Lowe is determined to be at the state funeral despite difficulties with his own health.
Mr Lowe, who turned 84 last Tuesday, has been battling poor health for some time and felt particularly unwell this week, shortly before he spoke to the Weekend Herald in a revealing tribute to Sir Ed.
However his wife Mary said yesterday he was much better and they intended to fly to Auckland from Christchurch for the funeral.
The Lowes live in the English county of Derbyshire but have spent the past few summers at a home they have at Diamond Harbour on Banks Peninsula near Christchurch. That house is on the market because around-the-world travel has now become too arduous for Mr Lowe.
Mr Lowe, best man at Sir Ed's first wedding, was lauded by a British paper as "the first hero of Everest" in recognition of his work in thigh-deep snow cutting steps for Sir Ed and Tenzing Norgay and setting up high camps from which the pair made their successful push for the summit in 1953.
