Less than 5 years after he climbed Mt Everest Sir Edmund Hillary ventured to the South Pole.
He did it in a legendary Ferguson TE-20 tractor.
Now almost 60 years later the tractors are heading south again.
There's been school visits, mayoral receptions, a bit of wild weather and even a spot of mechanical trouble, but three tractors tasked with a momentous journey from Auckland to Aoraki to raise money for Sir Edmund Hillary's Hut are almost a third of the way there.
The two vintage tractorssimilar to the Ferguson TE-20 models used by Sir Ed to reach the South Pole in the late 1950s, and a modern Massey Ferguson MF5600, have been turning heads and drawing crowds as a team of four drivers make their way slowly from Piha Beach to Aoraki Mount Cook.
Dubbed "Expedition South", the month-long road trip was launched by the Antarctic Heritage Trust to help raise $1 million to repair and maintain Hillary's Hut, the first building at Scott Base and the launching pad for the famous Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1957-58.
Executive director Nigel Watson said Expedition South was now in its 10th day and had arrived in Whanganui today at 4pm.
So far the expedition had covered 600km, almost a third of the 2012km - the same distance Hillary and his team travelled in the coast-to-coast crossing of Antarctica - and raised nearly $4000.
A Givealittle page set up for the cause had raised $7500 while the tally, including money from donations, was at $585,000.
This afternoon's drive from Raetihi in the central north Island to Whanganui was about 102km for the team which included expedition leader Al Fastier and co-ordinator Lydia McLean.
The tractors had been moving at a steady but slow pace of 20km/h and while there had been a few unplanned stops for "minor" mechanical faults, Watson said it was nothing team mechanic Brian Blyth couldn't handle.
