Media Release

18 January, 2008

Waitakere to host commemoration service for Sir Edmund Hillary

Renowned former All Black Va’aiga ‘Inga’ Tuigamala is helping organise a commemoration service for Sir Edmund Hillary next Tuesday with assistance from the Waitakere City Council.

The public is invited to attend Waitakere's commemoration service, which will be held at the Waitakere City Council’s civic square and will begin at 11.45am – coinciding with Sir Ed’s national funeral.

The service will be addressed by Inga Tuigamala and Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse, as Mayor Bob Harvey will be attending Sir Edmund Hillary's State funeral in Auckland city.

Mayor Harvey knew Sir Ed personally and describes him as “humble, generous and the epitome of that old fashioned term ‘gentleman’”.

"We have lost a truly great New Zealander," Mayor Harvey says.

At the service, 88 white doves will be released – one to mark each year of the peace advocate Sir Edmund Hillary’s life.
Sir Edmund owned a holiday home for many years at Anawhata on Waitakere’s west coast – a beach he described as “the most beautiful place on the planet”.

In his book Westies Mayor Harvey wrote that he remembered “Ed’s huge sense of fun, tempered by wisdom and care for others…to all New Zealanders Sir Edmund Hillary is more than just the face on the five dollar note, he is someone special: a father figure of the nation, a colossus in our lifetime”.

There will be a condolence book available for the public to leave their personal tributes to Sir Ed and the ceremony will finish at midday.

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