The Adventure World of Sir Edmund Hillary - The Sea Pillars of Great Barrier

To tell you the truth I'm not particularly good at anything, certainly according to modern standards. I'm sort of a ... well ... peppery coordinator.

– Edmund Hillary displays his famous modesty

It wasn't really an expedition as such, just a bunch of good friends ...

– Edmund Hillary

The first was an idea I’d been wanting to film for years and that became The Kaipo Wall, certainly the best film to date. I was not involved in the next two films. One was about sailing, or rather motoring, around Cape Horn (a film which lost its point a bit when Ed decided not to join the expedition). The third film was in Nepal but they had no script and no story and I don’t think the film was ever edited. By now the backers of The Adventure World were getting rebellious and they refused any more funding. So Ed and I approached TV! And offered to make a couple of cheap ($10,000) half hour films.

– Director Mike Gill, on the genesis of this filmed for TV production

The ascent of the Central Pillar is not one of the world's great climbs. Yet it contains all the elements that make up the world of the mountaineer: the spice of danger, the rhythm of movement, the uncertainties and the laughter; the comradeship remote from the city streets; a memory of wind, of sky, of rock and bright water.

– Edmund Hillary on the lure of adventure