Alexander Hillar: Sir Edmund Hillary’s grandson on Winston Peters visit to Nepal

A New Zealand foreign minister’s visited Nepal for the first time, more than 70 years since our countries were linked following the ascent of Mt Everest.

Winston Peters flew from Kathmandu to the Everest region on Thursday, where he toured a school and a hospital created by the charity Sir Edmund Hillary founded in the 1960s.

Sir Edmund Hillary’s grandson Alexander Hillary joined him and he speaks with Heather du Plessis-Allan now.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now, it has been more than seventy years since Sir
ed summit at Everest, but it's the first time that
we've actually sent a foreign minister to Nepol. And of
course it's Winston Peters, Sir Ed's grandson. Alexander Hillary is
with us from Nepal.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hey alex Hey, how you doing.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
I'm very well.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
You guys got some celebrations going on at the moment.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yeah. Look, it's been absolutely incredible. We're up here high
on the Himalaya's sort of near Mount Everest. It's a
beautiful day. I'm looking out the window right now and
there's a monk, burning juniper and beautiful mountains. And we
had an incredible celebration yesterday.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
What did you do? Did it involve whiskey?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
It didn't involve whiskey, but there was a little taste
of chug, which is a rice bear. So when the
minister arrived, we actually had a welcome by the local
women's group and they did a Yagata pinche, which is
essentially a beautiful chant, and at the end of it
there's an offering of chang. So are they So the
minister and a few of us took a little sip

(00:53):
of that, which was very nice.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
You're not making Winston climb at all, are you?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
No, we're not, no clime. I'm involved, but you know,
being in the Himalayas altitude and sort of you know
the complications of that are a part of it. So
we were up at you know, not that far off
four thousand meters, so pretty high up in the Himalayas,
and we're in Kundi and Kongjong Village, which is a
really significant village for the Himalayan Trust. So it's where
all our works started. And we were just amazed and

(01:20):
really delighted that, you know, the Minister and the High Commissioner,
the Ambassador came all the way up to see the
projects that we've been working on there for about sixty years.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Listen, speaking of significance, how significant is it to have
a foreign minister come?

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Well, look, I think it's it's hugely significant. So New
Zealand and Nepal have had a pretty unique relationship for
you know, since the nineteen fifties, since nineteen fifty three,
and I think you know a lot of Kiwis feel
a great kinship for Nepal, and if you've been here
it's it's an incredibly sort of enticing place. It's just fantastic.
And I think, you know, to have that connection, to

(01:58):
have that acknowledgment of that special relationship with the Deputy
Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs come as
incredibly special. And the fact that he came up I
guess to sort of the home of the Himalayan Trust
and Ed's relationship up here in Himalayas is very special.
The Himalayan Trust has worked with the New Zealand government
for decades. I don't exactly know when it began, but

(02:20):
it's quite possibly since the nineteen sixties and we've worked
together on projects education, healthcare and different things. So it's
a long standing partnership which is sort of now called
the New Zealand International Development Cooperation and I think you know,
Winston's acknowledgment of that partnership over many, many years is
really significant.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, good stuff. Hey, enjoy yourself and thank you so
much for chatting to us. It's Alexander Hillary, Sir Edmund
Hillary's grandson. For more from Hither Duplessy Alan Drive, listen
live to news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays
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