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Video: Sir Edmund Hillary's obituaryKEY POINTS:
Prime Minister Helen Clark has promised that the Government will honour Sir Edmund Hillary's life in an appropriate way.
She didn't rule out a monument or statue being built in his memory. "Something will be designed, which the Hillary family are happy with and which Ed would have been happy with."
Speaking to the Weekend Herald from Hong Kong late last night, Helen Clark told of her admiration for Sir Ed.
" He was simply the greatest living New Zealander so there's a profound loss for all of us and I've got a lot of memories, the family has got lot of memories, every New Zealander has got memories of the accomplishments of what he did, so it is a sad day."
Helen Clark, who was born three years before Sir Ed conquered Mt Everest, said that his was a household name in her childhood.
"He was so famous, it's almost hard to say when you first heard of him, he was just part of growing up in New Zealand."
She described Sir Ed as a great achiever, who was always modest.
"He was a very humble man. Humility was his stock and trade, and I think there's something in the New Zealand character that doesn't like to skite, it likes the person who achieved and quietly got on with it, and that's what he did.
"A lot of people climb a mountain and then tick it off as 'done that'. He never turned his back on the Himalayas and kept working for the Sherpa people there throughout his life," Helen Clark said.
"He was a big, strong man and that's what got him to the top of Everest and that's what got him to the South Pole."
The PM was about to board a plane in London to travel home from a Christmas holiday when she received a text message with the news of his death.
A good friend of Sir Ed and his wife Lady June, Helen Clark made contact with them before she left last month on the trip to Scandinavia and Britain.
It had been known among those close to Sir Ed that his life was coming to a close, and she had been in frequent contact with Lady June.
Tentative talks had been held about what would happen when Sir Ed died.
Acting Prime Minister Michael Cullen said Helen Clark and Sir Ed had "sort of hit it off".
"It's been known for some time that the end of his life was approaching," Dr Cullen said.
"At one point I think Helen wasn't too sure whether she should go off on that trip she had to the East Asian summit because it looked as though Ed's death could occur at any time."
The summit was held in mid-November.
Helen Clark, a keen cross-country skier and mountaineer, visited Antarctica with Sir Ed almost a year ago.
She is expected to visit the Hillary family shortly after she arrives back in New Zealand this morning, and details of a state funeral will be organised over the weekend.
Dr Cullen said the public should remember that the wishes of Sir Ed's family were paramount.
