Which New Zealander first reached the summit of Mount Everest in 1953?

The New Zealander who first reached the summit of Mount Everest in 1953 was Edmund Hillary.

Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay made the first confirmed ascent on May 29, 1953. They were members of the ninth British expedition, led by Colonel John Hunt, and climbed by the South Col route from Nepal. They reached the summit at about 11:30 a.m.

The achievement was a team effort involving climbers, Sherpa guides, porters, route-finders, and expedition staff. Hillary was the New Zealander in the summit pair; Tenzing was a Nepali Sherpa who had already gained extensive Himalayan experience. Later accounts indicated that Hillary stepped onto the summit first, but both climbers are credited with the first ascent.

George Mallory is often confused with Hillary because Mallory disappeared during an attempted Everest climb in 1924. Reinhold Messner came much later, becoming the first person to climb Everest without supplemental oxygen in 1978, while Jim Whittaker became the first American to summit in 1963.