Members of public file past the casket of Sir Edmund Hillary in Holy Trinity Cathedral as it lies in state in Auckland, New Zealand, on Monday. (Hannah Johnston/Getty Images)
AUCKLAND, New Zealand (Associated Press - Globe and Mail, Canada), January 21, 2008:
Thousands of New Zealanders filed solemnly past the casket of Mount Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary on Monday as they paid final respects a day ahead of his state funeral.
Sir Edmund's body lay in the closed coffin on a catafalque in Auckland's Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral with four soldiers, rifles at rest, standing guard as ordinary New Zealanders bade farewell to a man many simply called “a hero.”
Sir Edmund, 88, died of a heart attack on January 11, 2008.
The mountaineer and adventurer gained international fame in 1953, when he and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first men to climb Nepal's Mount Everest, the world's tallest peak.
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By Ray Lilley
© 2008 CTVglobemedia.
