Rare Sir Edmund Hillary expedition socks to go on display at Fieldays

A rare piece of New Zealand history will go on display at next month's Fieldays.

The Norsewear Farm Fleck style socks were worn by Sir Edmund Hillary on various expeditions and have graced posters and magazine covers.

The pair have been in Hillary family's private collection but were loaned to makers Norsewear and will go on display at the Southern Hemisphere's largest agricultural event.

Norsewear's Tim Deane told Checkpoint the socks were worn by Sir Edmund when he did the Grand Traverse of Aoraki/Mount Cook with Graeme Dingle back in the early 1970s.

"We're very, very excited to have them on display. They were called the Norsewear Climbing Sock," he said.

"They were designed similar to a Farm Fleck, but they came up almost to the knee and Sir Ed's socks are enormous.

"He was obviously a tall man, and he had big feet, but they got him to the top of Everest."

Deane said they were grateful for the Hillary family allowing them to put the socks on display.

He said while they haven't washed them, they smelt "remarkably good".

Deane said as far as he was aware, the socks were worn during Sir Edmund's last major expedition.

"They have been in the Hillary family since then and Alex Hillary - who's Sir Ed's grandson - wears some of our modern Norsewear socks on his adventures," he said.

"He was working through the archives and found them and sent us a photograph of the original socks.

"We asked Alex if the family would mind lending them to us so that's how we ended up tracking them down and we'll have them on display."

Deane said the whole factory was really excited.

Everybody wanted to come and have a look, he said.

"Although we now make you know way more technical modern socks than these, it's lovely to have this as part of the Norsewear story.

"There's a lot of pride I think you know from the folks in the factory right through to people like me.

"We're lucky to be custodians of such a special part of New Zealand's history."

Deane said he wasn't concerned the socks would get damaged as they were robust and made of New Zealand wool.

But he said the socks would be in a case at Fieldays.

"They will be protected and they will be put in safe keeping overnight and we've got to make sure that we can give them back to the Hillary family at the end of Fieldays so they will be able to be seen but not touched," Deane said.

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