When I Was 50 Years Old, I

I've Often Thought About That And The Only Suitable Member To Join Me On That Climb [to Everest] Was George Lowe: He Was Strong, A Good Man On A Mountain, With A Great Sense Of Humour, And I Liked That. I Think George And I Could've Done That Together ... I've Probably Never Told George That.

I Started To Become More Active And When I Was At Auckland Grammar I Went For The First Time To The Mountains. I Went To Ruapehu And For The First Time I Saw Snow. I Had Never Seen Snow Before And For 10 Days The Group Of Us Had A Marvellous Time.

June [hillary] Had Been Doing All These Things - The Himalayas And All The Rest Of It - So We Had Done Things Together For A Long Time, And, Particularly As Far As Our Sherpas Were Concerned, We Had A Very Sound, I Think, Philosophy. So That Made It Very Easy For Us To Agree On What Should Be Done.

I Was Not A Beater Of Children And As A Consequence I've Always Been, I Think, Very Agreeable And Co-operative.

I Never Talk About Being Leaders And All The Rest Of It. I Can Only Remember One Or Two Occasions In My Life When I Actually Issued Orders, And I Felt Thoroughly Miserable After Doing It.