We will not see his kind again 

There has probably never been a New Zealander like Sir Edmund Hillary who while commanding the world stage was the quintessential Kiwi - humble, hard-working and honest.

The first person to scale the highest peak in the world, Hillary died in Auckland Hospital at 9am on Friday morning at the age of 88.

As news trickled out that the mountain of a man had left us, the tributes flooded in, flags were lowered and flowers flowed.

Personal friend Mark Sainsbury read a statement from the family that said Sir Ed died peacefully when "his heart gave out".

In the final month of his life Sir Edmund was in and and out of hospital but he was due to go home on the day he died.

"He retained his sense of humour right to the end. He was cheerful and joking...I suspect he knew his time was coming to an end," his friend Tom Scott says.

Sainsbury says Sir Ed had been in good spirits and was sitting up and chatting.

It was a very peaceful end and his wife Lady Hillary and family have constantly been at his side.

For now they are grieving in private.

"They were married for a long, long time. He was devoted...She is grieving but is doing it with great dignity and great courage," Scott says.

Hillary had grown frail in his final years and during a trip to Nepal in 2006 he needed oxygen and medical attention for altitude sickness. He was also hospitalised last year when he became ill after a  trip to Kathmandu.

A practical man, he knew only too well that death was not too far away.

In 2002 he said: "I don't think it particularly frightens me. I have had a long haul...I have had a marvellous life...I have had two wonderful wives...you can't do better than that...I have a very good life, an exciting one, many good adventures."

But the world is still mourning the end of the 88 year adventure.

"Every New Zealander I think today feels they have lost something with the loss of Sir Ed," says  acting Prime Minister Michael Cullen.
 
And the sense of loss extends well beyond New Zealand's shores. His death ends the most famous partnership in the history of mountaineering.

"Today is a very sad day for sherpas all around the world. He was a father figure to us and he's a person we'll dearly miss," says Norbu Tenzing, son of Tenzing Norgay who conquered Everest along with Hillary.

Hillary's family says funeral arrangements will be made over the weekend but already there is talk of a fitting memorial.

"I think what he would want is not something that glorifies him in Renaissance statue kind of fashion but something that expresses what he stood for as a person in the world," Cullen says.

However, for the moment people are pausing to remember a Kiwi who stood at the top of the world.

"He was a remarkable man and we will not see his kind again," says Scott.