"I am sure when we come back in a few years time for a reunion it will be great to look back at and go wow, we paid for that and we got that organised."
"It was good to have Lady Hillary out to see it and she likes it so obviously it is a very good picture.
Tully Dickson, one of the 2016 leavers was in attendance to see the project his class started be completed. Photo / Tom Rowland
It is an annual tradition at St Paul's for the school leavers to leave a gift, and Mr Dickson said that his year group wanted to leave a real impression.
"As a prefect group we had to come up with something we wanted. We settled on a picture and then one of our students, Tom Wilson, pushed hard for getting it organised."
The Sir Edmund Hillary mural was painted by Mr Dippie in 2017 and is overlooking the St Paul's tennis court.
Alongside the mural is a plaque with information about both Sir Edmund Hillary and Mr Dippie.
At the top is Sir Edmund's famous quote: "It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves".
St Pauls Collegiate student Dallas Taikato leads the school haka as they welcome Lady June Hillary and other guests to the unveiling and blessing of a new mural of Sir Edmund Hillary.
Associate Headmaster Ainsley Robson said the artwork represents the hard work of the students of St Paul's.
"This is the 2016 leavers gift. It is a gift by the students, for the students and what makes this even better is the artwork by Mr Dippie who is a former student," Mr Robson said.
"The leavers gift is actually for the student body. It is for that class in particular so that you have a memory, a keepsake and a symbol that you can latch on too."
"When the day arrives when you come back to your old school you can look upon that and you can remember the memories of when you were at school."
"The whole point of this work was to try and create a word or phrase that people can drive from, and Sir Edmund Hillary is an icon amongst New Zealand culture."
The mural was blessed by the Reverend Peter Rickman before the students performed the school haka.
