Adventure Kokoda Blog

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are all well and have a wonderful and safe Christmas and New Year.  Sorry it has taken me a while to make contact, I haven’t stopped travelling really, between work and flying to Melbourne I haven’t been home much.

Thank you for being the most Wonderful Group of People I have ever had the priviledge of travelling with.  Your friendship and encouragement you all showed to me and each and everyone of us along the track will stay with me for the rest of my life.  My holiday was perfect from start to finish.  If you ever organise a trip all together as a group count me in ;-0) ….( Machu Picchu , Great Wall of China ,Camino de Santiago walk etc would be good adventures! ) My knees have finally recovered, I did head straight back to the gym on my return to Perth , mind you I was a bit easier on myself because of my knees , but my personal trainer Bec showed me no mercy..I guess that is what I pay her for ;-0)

As for Adventure Kokoda , WOW !! I haven’t stopped singing your praises, what an Awesome Professional Company!  You did not disappoint! Adventure Kokoda was everything I had hoped for and more.  Adventure Kokoda is the first Company I have ever come across that has not only been everything they advertised to be , but more!

Chad Thank you ! Thank you Thank you ! You made our trip what it was – the most moving, memorable experience of a lifetime .  Because of you and your knowledge of Kokoda , its history , the relationship  you have with us as a group and the people of PNG, your awesome personality, humour and of course the wonderful poetry ( that was truly awesome and what made the experience so special) , and singing of Danny Boy (my favourite song) made the trip something I will remember and talk about forever.  Not a day goes by that I don’t think of my time in PNG , it truly has left a foot print on my heart, especially  the people of PNG what warm, caring, beautiful people.

I have finally worked out how to replay the video camcord (blonde coming out in me) and yayy it did work and I captured a lot of footage, which turned out really well and very clear!  Mind you my filming skill leave a lot to be desired ( I moved too fast at times, it was the first time I had used it , should have practiced hey!) but the most crucial moments , the dawn service , presentation night etc  turned out lovely.  It was wonderful to watch and I got homesick for PNG and of course the choko vines ( they were so yum, the simple things in life are definitely the best!).

I will endeavour to get them copied to disk and have a copy sent to you all in the New Year.

Can you please email me your postal addresses and your surnames too.  Regina I have all your photo to send to you too ;-0)

I really look forward to hearing from you all ;-0)

Kind Regards,

Marg

Adventure Kokoda recenlty donated $35,000 to assist in the establishment of Network Kokoda - a foundation which aims to develop a Master Memorial Plan for the Kokoda Trail in partnership with the Australian War Memorial, the RSL and the Kokoda Track Authority. Network Kokoda also plans to work in partnership with the PNG Department of Community Services to establishe Community Learning Development Centres along the Kokoda Trail and other areas in PNG in recognition of the PNG Wartime Carriers.

The Chairman of the foundation is Brigadier Phil McNamara. During his 35 years in the army Phillip served in the Special Air Service (SAS), the 1st Commando Regiment and the Pacific Islands Regiment in PNG – he is fluent in Tok Pisin. After leaving the army he was engaged as the Director General of the NSW State Emergency Service for seven years. For more information on Network Kokoda please click here: www.networkkokoda.org.au -

Adventure Kokoda has also established a number of philanthropic programs to assist PNG students in Port Moresby and villages along the track.  These include:

.  a Kokoda Bursary Program to assist PNG students at Port Moresby Grammar School and beyond;
.  a ‘Bring-a-Buk’ program to assist in the stocking of the school library;
.  a ‘Yumi Helpim Pikinnini Program to support village schools along the Kokdoa trail: and
.  a ‘Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel Trekking Program’ which involves sponsoring senior students and teachers from the Sogeri High School on our Kokoda Youth Leaderhip Challenge treks. (more…)

Hi Ron,

I guess after being home for over a week now and fully recovered I thought I would drop you an email to say thank you for everything you did. It was a life long dream to do Kokoda and to now sit back and look back at what I have achieved is an amazing feeling.

Words cannot express how grateful I am to you in helping me achieving that goal.  But I will try so to you I thank you for your guidance, leadership, mateship and most important your knowledge. Without that my experience would not have been the same. I have brought back many memories and stories that I will keep for the rest of my life. Everyday with your stories and knowledge of the trek made the trip that extra bit rewarding I could not have asked for a better leader you certainly took me back to 1942. (more…)

Hi Chad,

As the day continues; the work gets busy, patients, people, paper work, traffic jams, politics, finance, interest rate hikes, not enough time for yourself, not enough time for your family, but deep down you know you will not sweat the small stuff any more. Something inside you gives you strength to take on the demands that comes your way, as you know the challenges you face is not as hard as those hills that goes high and higher beyond the tree tops, or the tracks that continues on and on down pass the mud and the thick tree roots.  You know you have completed the famous Kokoda track, over 100km of walking, through the routes that the young Australia soldier fought to stop the advancing Japanese in WWII.  You know you can face and overcome the mental challenges and the physical demands that comes your way; even under hard conditions of aching joints to the fever of viral illness or even the detrimental effects of dehydration.  (more…)

Recent reports regarding the discovery of Captain Sam Templeton’s body by a trek operator, Wayne Wetherall of Kokoda Spirit, were widely reported throughout Australia and Papua New Guinea. According to Wetherall a 90 year old Japanese war veteran, Kokichi Nishimura, claimed to have buried Captain Templeton after he was killed by an enraged Japanese officer in July 1942.

The reports raise a number of questions, in particular:

. Why has Nishimura waited until now to suddenly ‘remember’ the incident?

. How was Nishimura’s claim tested?

. Why wasn’t the ‘discovery’ reported to the appropriate authorities i.e. the Australian High Commission, the Army Unrecovered War Casualties Unit or the Office of Australian War Graves so that a specialist forensic team could be formed to excavate the site?

(more…)

The PNG Government has officially proclaimed Kokoda Day as 3 November – the anniversary of the day the Australian flag was raised on the Kokoda plateau.  The day will be dedicated to the PNG War Carriers (of ‘fuzzy-wuzzy angel fame).  The inagural Kokoda Day ceremony will be held in Kokoda on 3 November 2010. 

The proclamation was the result of a proposal submitted by Charlie Lynn of Adventure Kokoda.  Charlie made the following speech to the NSW Parliament on 2 May 2006: (more…)

Adventure Kokoda continues to develop its philanthropic programs along the Kokoda Trail with the help of our trekkers.  In 2009 the company introduced a ‘Yumi Helpim Pikinini’ Program which saw 120 backpacks filled with educational, health and sporting gear delivered to village students.

Last year Adventure Kokoda was the only trekking company to pay our trek fees in full and in advance.  This year we were the only trekking company to respond to a call from the PNG Kokoda Track Authority to help sponsor a team of local rugby league players to train with the Gold Coast Titan Juniors on the Gold Coast.  (more…)

Despite the deaths Australians are drawn to take the challenge, writes Erik Jensen from the Sydney Morning Herald, who has just completed the RSL Services Clubs Kokoda Youth Challenge with Adventure Kokoda .

There are not the words in Koiari to ask about Kokoda’s spirit. That is an Australian construct, and a reasonably modern one: the sort that made Paul Keating bend down and kiss the earth at Kokoda in 1992, that wrote the word ”mateship” on the memorial built there a decade later, and sends almost 6000 Australians down the track each year. (more…)

Kokoda has claimed more Australian lives this year than Afghanistan.

During the last week two trekkers died on the Kokoda Trail, a couple more were evacuated by helicopter and fourteen went down with food poisoning.  Yesterday a campsite that took years to build at Ofi Creek was burned to the ground over an argument between two landowners. (more…)