Thousands of New Zealanders filed solemnly past the casket of Mount Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary on Monday as they paid final respects ahead of his state funeral today.

Hillary's body lay in the closed coffin on a catafalque in Auckland's Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral with four soldiers, rifles at rest, standing guard as ordinary New Zealanders bade farewell to a man many simply called "a hero".

Hillary, 88, died of a heart attack on January 11.