New Zealand has lost its great icon, Sir Edmund Hillary.

He died this morning, at the age of 88-years-old, from a heart attack.

Once an unknown beekeeper from Tuakau, Sir Edmund soared to instant fame on the day of Queen Elizabeth's coronation when it was announced to the world that the New Zealander was the first to stand on the world's highest peak, Mt Everest.

The festive crowd gathered at Parliament in Wellington to mark the coronation on June 2, 1953, cheered ecstatically and waved flags as acting Prime Minister Keith Holyoake told them that Hillary had succeeded in conquering Everest and had "put the British race and New Zealand on top of the world".

"What a magnificent coronation present for the Queen! How proud we all are that it is from our loyal little New Zealand!"

The ostentatious words of the politician contrasted with the succinct way Edmund Percival Hillary described his achievement.

As he and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay descended from the May 29 attempt on the mountain, Hillary told fellow climbers: "We knocked the bastard off."

Hillary, who came to characterise the typical "rugged Kiwi individual", was born in Auckland on July 20, 1919.

Educated at Auckland Grammar School, where he admitted he was "no great shakes", Hillary eventually became a beekeeper, like his father.

During World War II he trained as a navigator in the Royal New Zealand Air Force and flew anti-submarine patrols in the Pacific on Catalina flying boats.
During his training he began climbing with his long time friend, George Lowe from Hawke's Bay, honing his skills on the Kaikoura Ranges.

After the war he returned to beekeeping and began to climb extensively, including three Himalayan expeditions.

His chance to make his mark in history came when selected for the 1953 British expedition to climb Mt Everest, led by former commando Colonel John Hunt, later Lord Hunt.

On the mountain, the first assault team that tried to reach the 8848m summit was driven back by altitude sickness. Hillary, who was renowned for his fitness and speed, was chosen along with Sherpa Tenzing to try next.

The words which were to become as immortal as his historic climb, came almost without thinking, he said in his later book View from the Summit.

"We came down the mountain and George (Lowe) came to meet us across the South Col and he had a thermos flask of tomato soup.

"George is an old climbing companion I had known for many years and when I made my comment I was not thinking of the world in general.

"George said `Well how did it go?' and I said, `Well George, we knocked the bastard off'."

The comment reverberated around the world, cementing the legend of Edmund Hillary as the ordinary Kiwi bloke who had done the extraordinary.

For a long time he refused to say who reached the summit first, but View From The Summit eventually made it clear.

"I continued cutting a line of steps upwards," he wrote.

"Next moment I had moved on to a flattish exposed area of snow with nothing but space in every direction. Tenzing quickly joined me and we looked round in wonder. To our immense satisfaction we realised we had reached the top of the world."

The conquest of Everest brought Hillary, then 35, lasting fame which was swiftly recognised when he was knighted on June 6, 1953.

Sir Edmund was typically modest about the award.

"I could see myself walking down Broadway, Papakura, in my tattered overalls and the seat out of my pants, and I thought `That's gone forever. I'll have to buy a new pair of overalls now'."

In September of that year he married Louise Mary Rose, the daughter of the president of the New Zealand Alpine Club. They later had three children, Peter, Belinda and Sarah.

But his pace of life did not slow. He embarked on another great adventure in 1957, establishing Scott Base in Antarctica and leading the first vehicle