First to the Top - a book review by Noah Lewis

This book report is on First to the Top by David Hill (illustrated by Phoebe Morris) which tells the story of Sir Edmund Hillary one of our most famous kiwi explorers.

Sir Edmund Hillary was born in 1919 and grew up in Tuakau. All his life he liked adventures, he liked to build rafts and climb mountains when he was a little boy. As he got older he got bigger and stronger.

He was in the Air Force in World War 2, after the war ended he continued climbing mountains all over the world.

In 1951 he joined a British expedition to try and work out how to climb the tallest mountain in the world, Mt. Everest. Two years later he returned and with his friend called Tenzing Norgay they started tramping and climbing mountains together.

Sir Ed and Tenzing were the second group to try to climb to the top during this expedition and on the 28th of May 1953 they made it. Sir Ed completed many other adventures after this including cross Antarctica in tractors and teaching the Sherpa people how to play rugby.

If you look at our $5 note you can see Sir Ed on it.