Sir Ed funeral reaches out with gentle intimacy

Daughter Sarah Hillary spoke of her father's rich sense of humour. Photo / John Selkirk

For all its grandness and international circumstance, all the military shoeshine and recitation of honours, Sir Edmund Hillary's funeral was, more than anything, intimate.

As the most famous and beloved of New Zealanders went to his final rest, he was hailed as an icon, a hero, a colossus - but more importantly as Dad, Grandpa, Ed.

Inside the pretty wooden church of St Mary's, Parnell, with ice axes stacked by the door, the dignitaries in their suits gathered with the mountain-climbers in their sandals, the Sherpas, the little old ladies in a service broadcast across New Zealand and the world.

They listened - as did mourners from Antarctica to Nepal - as Sir Ed's children and grandchildren gave us a series of insights into their man. For so many years they have shared Ed, the adventurer and philanthropist, with the world; now, they shared Ed, the sweet, soft, idiosyncratic toughie.

He was the holiday planner from hell, zipping his kids across the atlas on ambitious family jaunts in the Morris Minor; the snuggled-up All Blacks fan with a glass of whisky in his hand on a winter night; the fryer of lamb chops and boiler of spuds.

He was the grandpa waiting with a glass of Ribena; the dad gently teaching his son how to climb; the loquacious bloke singing badly and telling stories - rude ones - into the night by a campfire; the grieving widower sobbing in a Kathmandu back-alley for the wife and daughter he'd lost.

In a long, funny, sad tribute, Sir Ed's son Peter reflected upon how his perceptions of the father he emulated, battled and loved were shaped by that 1975 plane crash, which killed wife Louise and 16-year-old daughter Belinda.

"Despite all of Dad's incredible strength, he was frail too. He was human. That was one of the most endearing and wonderful parts of what Ed Hillary was," Peter said.

"I look back on it now and see it as the long, dark tragedy in our family story. But despite that, Dad's irrepressible energy and restlessness led to more amazing adventures."

Peter Hillary's address set the tone of the day - remembering with equal humour Sir Ed's triumphs, flaws and, most of all, his great devotion to the people of Nepal, for whom he gave a life's hands-on philanthropy.

"My father was the only person I ever met who regularly travelled overseas with a prefabricated building in his baggage," said Hillary of his father, who built by hand schools, hospitals, clinics, roads and bridges to transform the lives of the Sherpas.