When considering the best day of my life I know I should be thinking about the birth of my children or getting married. Yes, they were very special moments, but long before they came along, as a single man and in my first teaching job - at Queen Elizabeth High School, a state school in Hexham, Northumberland - there was a special day a world away from New Zealand or even the school that employed me.
It is 6.30am, it is well below freezing and the sun has not yet reached the tent, which is lined with frost. Shortly, I will struggle from the warmth of my sleeping bag and don the same clothes I have been wearing for the past week and meet with the 11 students who I have led on a trip to the Everest region of Nepal. It is Christmas Day 1987 and we have just spent the night at Lobuje, at 4900m.
After a breakfast of a Nepalese version of porridge we set off across a poorly defined trail that weaves between boulders of the moraine of the Khumbu Glacier. We pass a low ridge along which there are tributes to climbers who did not return from the peaks that surround us. It is a sobering moment as we make our way to our own Himalayan summit.
By mid morning we reach Gorak Shep, which is supposed to be an abandoned yak herders hut. To our surprise an enterprising local has set up a tea stall! After a quick cup of smoky tea we turn our attention to Kala Pattar, 5545m. The pace slows. I feel my heart thumping through my ribs. The cold air burns in my chest. My head aches. Soon, I am on the summit and joined by the students. We gaze across the valley to Lhotse, Nuptse and then across the top of the cwm that separates Everest. The sky is clear and the snow appears to glow. We pick out the Khumbu icefall, a jumble of towers of ice and snow. There will be no movement on the mountain for a few months but we wonder what the summit would be like today! Cold for sure!
After marvelling at the splendour of our situation, we retrace our steps back to our tents at Lobuje. Ali, one of the students really struggles and is exhausted when we reach our tents in the dark. It takes some effort to prize him from his sleeping bag to join us for Christmas dinner. We present gifts from their parents. Ali has a gold Saint Christopher and remarks that he could have done with that today! Justin has a pair of binoculars. When he is reunited with his family two weeks later the first thing he says is ``The first thing I saw through these was Mount Everest!''.
While I now enjoy making these kinds of memories with my family, that day remains so special to me.
Mike Wright is principal of South Otago High School.
Your best day
Tell us about your best day. Send submissions to odt.features@odt.co.nz. We ask that you don’t nominate the day you were married or when a child arrived. But any other day is fine.
