Sir Edmund Hillary's handwritten application for the passport he likely used to travel to Nepal to climb Mt Everest has been found in a box in Wellington.

The application is among about 70 belonging to notable New Zealanders which are believed to have been compiled by a Department of Internal Affairs staff member, who handed them to National Archives where they've sat for a number of years.

The treasure trove was only discovered recently - completely by chance - when a researcher asked Archives New Zealand if his grandfather's old application had been kept.

"It's just an act of serendipity," says chief archivist Richard Foy.

"We didn't expect to find these and we couldn't have found them, as they hadn't been listed down to the item level. So it was just by sheer luck."

The most prized find is Sir Edmund Hillary's handwritten passport application, signed February 16, 1950.