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First NZ Sikh to summit Everest recovering in Kathmandu hospital
New Zealander Malkit Singh has just climbed Mt Everest, making him the first member of New Zealand’s Sikh community to make the climb.
Singh says he is no mountain climber, but is simply a determined 53-year-old from Papakura whose dreams of climbing the famed mountain was, in part, inspired by meeting Sir Edmund Hilary as a child.
He told First Up from his hospital bed in Kathmandu that he had been hit by exhaustion and dehydration.
“I lost appetite… couldn’t eat for last 15 days. Dehydration happened, so that exhausted me. After I came back to base camp that landed me in hospital,” Singh said.
He made it to Everest Base Camp with his group and was soon heading to camps closer to the summit where climbers acclimatise to the higher altitudes.
“After Base Camp, we had to do the rotation to Mount Lobuche. That is 6119 metres. After I came down from that mountain.. I lost [appetite], not feeling like eating anything. If I tried to eat, I vomited.”
He told First Up that he first had the thought to climb the mountain only two years ago.
“I’m not a mountaineering guy. I was just a simple guy. I was just doing the job and then I got in contact with some Canadian guy and he told me that he wants to do it.”
He said brushes with mountaineering royalty helped inspire him.
“I had previously met Edmund Hillary in Auckland. Before, when I was living in India, he had come to my school.
“That connection made me achieve this one now, when I’m 53.”
Malkit Singh at the summit of Mount Everest Photo: Supplied
At the top, Singh raised the New Zealand flag and the Sikh flag.
The group’s time at the summit was limited, but he said it was amazing.
“You’re exhausted, you’re finished. But when once you reach there, you feel like a different world. People around you, all are exhausted.
“Once they reach the top, they just feel fresh and like, not that fresh [but] they get energy to stand or sit down. You get only a 15 to 20 minute window to do that.”
Singh told First Up there are a lot of people attempting to summit Everest on any given day, and the weather plays a vital part in deciding when to make that final ascent.
“In our group [there] was 70, the next day it was more than 150. But the problem is the weather window.
“You start [climbing] and after poor weather, then you have to come back. Then you’re finished, you can’t go again.”
Once the okay is given to begin an attempt on the summit, the butterflies kicked in.
“Your brain stops. Your brain is not working. You’re just going up. You feel excitement, but your energy drains you.”
Singh said he had started eating and hopes to be well enough to leave hospital in the next few days, and to be back home in Auckland as soon as possible.
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The chief executive of the Parliamentary Service is confident there will be enough room to accommodate the increased number of MPs and their staff coming into Parliament.
On current numbers, up to 131 MPs could be sitting in the Chamber following the election, brought on by a record overhang result.
Clerk of the House of Representatives Dr David Wilson told the Spinoff that currently the debating chamber had enough chairs to seat 124 MPs – including the Speaker of the House – and work was being done to accommodate more by altering the seating arrangement.
In a statement, Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said planning for a larger Parliament had been going for “some time”.
“Now that the election results have confirmed an increase to the number of members we are looking at several options.
“We are confident we will be able to accommodate all members within the Chamber.”
VNP / Phil Smith
Gonzalez-Montero said office accommodation for members and their staff would be “stretched” for a short time, but the new Members’ Building was only a few months away from “practical completion”.
That building – located behind Parliament – was due to be ready to occupy in April next year and had capacity to accommodate around 30 backbench MPs.
“All members should be in fit-for-purpose accommodation from that point,” Gonzalez-Montero said.
Following the 2023 election, 123 MPs sat in the Chamber – a record number at the time. That decreased to 122 following the resignation of National MP Judith Collins.
Collins held the seat of Papakura and stepped down in May and Parliament voted against holding a by-election because it was too close to the election.
The election result also meant high-ranking National Party MPs like Chris Bishop, Paul Goldsmith, Nicola Willis and Gerry Brownlee – Speaker of the House and an MP for 30 years – would likely not make it back into Parliament.
Only resigning or retiring MPs were permitted to give a valedictory speech meaning none of them would get the chance to give a valedictory statement.
Asked if their would be special allowances for valedictories, Wilson said in a statement that normally only MPs were allowed to speak in the House but the House could suspend its own rules or temporarily alter them.
“It could do so to allow former members to address the House.”
Wilson said no such arrangements could be made until the next Parliament opened and members sworn in.
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