Hillary honoured at new US South Pole base (click title to entry, thank you)
The Press
Wednesday, 16 January 2008
The new American base at the South Pole took 10 years and $220 million to build but when the flag was hoisted at the official opening, it was raised only to half-mast - in memory of Sir Edmund Hillary.
A delegation of dignitaries from the United States travelled through Christchurch to the South Pole for the inauguration on Saturday of the new elevated Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
Prime Minister Helen Clark had invited Hillary to the pole for the 50th anniversary of reaching it by tractor, but he was prevented by his failing health.
However, Arden Bement, director of the National Science Foundation, which runs the United States Antarctic Programme, used his speech opening the station to say he believed Hillary was present in spirit.
"At this moment of exciting celebration, however, it is fitting that we pause for a moment to remember the accomplishments of Sir Edmund Hillary, the noted New Zealand explorer who stood on this very spot in January 1958, the first person to do so since Robert Falcon Scott in 1912," he said....
