Under the Himalayan Sky: Establishing Sagarmatha National Park - A New Zealand Family's Experience

In the 1970s, the Nepalese government established an agreement with New Zealand for help in setting up a national park in the Mt Everest region for the Himalayas. Bruce Jefferies, an Assistant Supervising Ranger with New Zealand’s National Park Service, took off for Nepal with his wife Margaret, and three young children. They had little idea of what to expect in this remote, high-altitude environment. 

Under the Himalayan Sky is Margaret’s memoir of the time the family spent in Khumbu (Mt Everest), with no running water or electricity, largely cut off from the outside world, living on the traditional local diet of potatoes and tea. In spite of what might be perceived as hardships, the family embraced life amongst the colourfeul and hospitable Sherpa people.

Margaret’s story paints a fascinating portrait of this region of Nepal in the early days before large scale tourism and trekking opened it up to the outside world.