The Callum Challenge - for Gumboot Friday!

I turn 39 today. And I thought, what’s the sort of quest a guy can go on to mark his 40th rotation around the sun - while still being a dad and working for the boss.

I mean, I could try crossing the Antarctic by penguin, or paddling the Tasman Sea in an inflatable toy raft from The Warehouse, but my leave doesn’t really spread to those sort of adventures.

So I have decided to climb New Plymouth’s Paritutu Rock every day for a year. Well, 300 times a year, to allow me a bit of wriggle room for family events, torrential downpours and possible volcanic activity somewhere in the region.

I think this will achieve a few things. I’ll go from the least impressive to something more socially useful.

1: It will do something to my physical self. Being office-based, and a gamer as well, the body isn’t the toned temple of fitness it once was.

2: My brain likes a challenge. 90 per cent of climbing a 153 metre high rock, that’s nigh well vertical near the top, will be telling my legs and arms to keep doing it. I am sure they will come up with excuses not to. That’s where the brain comes in.

3: If I am going to do something that involves climbing rockfaces daily, someone else may as well benefit from this idiocy. I will start a Givealittle page with the goal of raising $2500 for I Am Hope. If I fall off and break my back, neck and pride, maybe the great Mike King might come and give a witty farewell speech at my service …