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 of 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.

Under the Himalayan Sky is a memoir by Margaret Jefferies of her time spent in the Khumbu with her family. Despite hardships including no running water or electricity, largely cut off from the outside world, the family embraced life amongst the colourful 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.