"A force of nature" is how close friends have described Lady June Hillary, the wife of the late Sir Edmund Hillary, who passed away on Saturday night.
The 92-year-old was married to the great explorer for almost 20 years, and was a formidable presence in her own right.
Screenwriter Tom Scott was a close friend of the Hillarys and first met Lady June in 1990.
"A formidable woman, very intelligent, very smart, very funny, a good lady. It was a privilege to have known her," he told Newshub.
Although she became well known through her marriage to the legendary mountaineer, Lady June's connection to exploring began with her first marriage to climber Peter Mulgrew.
In 2016 she spoke exclusively to Newshub about how Mulgrew and Sir Edmund met on the ice, as part of the first overland expedition to the South Pole since Sir Ernest Shackleton's doomed attempt in 1914.
It seemed that Lady June was destined to meet Sir Ed. In 1979, five years after Sir Edmund's first wife Louise died in a plane crash, Mulgrew took Sir Edmund's seat on the fateful Air New Zealand Erebus flight, bringing the two friends together.
Lady June was credited as saving a broken man.
"June literally pulled Ed out of the abyss that he could have fallen into. He was in such a dark place and I think we should all be eternally grateful to her for that," friend Mark Sainsbury said.
"Ed lived a lot longer than he would have with June's help. The tins were always full of fruit cake, when you arrived June would make a cup of tea and bring out her wonderful fruitcake which Ed loved," Scott added.
Even before her marriage to Sir Ed in 1989, Lady June had a long association with Nepal, and served as New Zealand's Honorary Consul-General there for many years.
"There were so many issues with the Nepalese community and she was happy to help, happy to support. She (had) a big heart," said Dinesh Khadka, Honorary Consulate of Nepal for Auckland, Waikato and Northland.
The Nepalese Sherpa even gave Sir Ed their blessing for his new wife.
"They got the seal of approval from the Sherpas, they could not have been more happy for the Burra Sahib to be happy again with the Burra Mensahib. It was a great love story, the second great love story for Ed," Scott said.
Scott visited Lady June a few weeks ago at her retirement village.
"Even though she was frail obviously getting closer to the end of her days. She was a beautiful woman right until the very end, and she still had this amazing bonnet of white hair."
Lady June had a love of the outdoors, especially in the Himalayas, and also did conservation work, but she'll be best known as being the strong woman behind a great New Zealander.
