KEY POINTS:
When boxer David "the Tuaman" Tua turned up to be honoured as a hero of Manukau yesterday, he ended up getting close to one of his own.
The heavyweight fighter spoke with Lady June Hillary - widow of mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary - and told her of how he trained in the gym at Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate in Otara early in his career.
"It was a very humbling experience," Tua said of the meeting at the unveiling of a wall of heroes chosen by the public at the SkyCity cinema in Westfield Manukau City.
He said Sir Ed let South Auckland people and the rest of New Zealand "know nothing is impossible".
The pair chatted after signing autographs for schoolchildren and posing with Wonder Woman and Batman.
Also honoured on the wall were sporting greats John Walker, Valerie Vili, Jonah Lomu and Michael Jones, Dawn Raid Entertainment's Danny "Brotha D" Leaosavaii, bro'Town co-writer Oscar Kightley, Manukau Mayor Len Brown and predecessor Sir Barry Curtis, businessman Peter "Mad Butcher" Leitch and swimming coaches Kevin Duffin and Keith Melvin.
