A Kiwi adventurer who's taking his 15-year-old son to scale Mount Kilamanjaro is encouraging other parents to spend one-on-one time with their kids, even if not going to such extremes.
Mike Allsop and his son Ethan are now flying to Tanzania to climb the 5895-metre mountain, TVNZ1's Seven Sharp reports.
No stranger to high altitude and adventure, Mike has reached the summit of Mt Everest and he climbed Mt Kilamanjaro 20 years ago.
At 14, each of his three children get to pick a challenge to do with their Dad.
It has to be approved by Mum and it has to be something that will push them to their limits.
One-on-one time with his kids is important to Mike. His Dad wasn't around when he was young.
“You don't have to go and do anything extreme. It's just spending time. It can be an adventure anywhere
"I was worried about being a good Dad because my Dad left when I was 10 and I never saw him again. Which is really sad for a young person to grow up without a dad, for whatever reason he had. And I suppose it shaped me in a way," he said.
Mike has already taken each of his kids to Everest's base camp on their seventh birthday, another family tradition.
"You have to have the courage to dream about things because they lead onto other things," he said.
But is he setting a high bar for other parents?
"Well you don't have to go and do anything extreme. It's just spending time. It can be an adventure anywhere, it could be going fishing or going tramping or doing the great walks," he said.
"It could be anything. It's just about having a family tradition. Ours just happens to be mountains because of my background mountaineering. And it gives them something to look forward to as well."
As for Ethan, he said he likes to think he's prepared for the Kilamanjaro challenge.
"I do a lot of exercise like rugby and training and sports like that," he said.
The father-son team are also taking a family board game, Guess Who, because the Guinness World record for highest played board game is open for the taking.
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