File:Shark's Tooth on Mt. Taranaki, New Zealand 1993.jpg

English: Dairn flying an Aztec from Kaitaia to Hawera and giving Ward Weldon from Chicago a special New Zealand memory. A really good fly by for all of us, actually. Shark's Tooth is to the left and the summit to the right. In between is the crater. The normal climbing entrance to the crater is through the obvious gap. Between 1968 and 1974 I climbed to the summit of Taranaki many times (although with a break while living in Scotland in 1971-2).

The greatest vertical height gain in 1 day that I ever did was in 1974 when a group of us climbed to the summit from the North Egmont car park and back twice within 16 hours immediately following a trek to North Egmont by way of the round the mountain track; the first being a 'dawn summit' - a climb at night to experience dawn on the summit - and the second to guide a a school party from Palmerston North.

I was dragged to exceed my fitness level because one of my companions on that day was Nick Banks, who later became the second New Zealander to climb Everest. To the best of my knowledge he is now a mountain guide and an instructor of climbing instructors living in or around Glencoe in Scotland.