What To Do

I have been busy making plans for things to do over the next few months. As I keep saying I am here so I had better make the most of it. So for the next few months I plan to be up to the following:

Resorting
I am off to Madang again this weekend. This time for a small holiday not work. I will be catching up with a couple of volunteers I came over here with. It is the start of the school holidays here in PNG so a good time for volunteers that are teachers to catch up. I will be only there for a few days - the weekend really - before coming back, but I will be living it up at the Madang Resort where us blessed volunteers get a 50% discount! Here's hopping it is fine weather.

Coffeeing
No I am not suddenly addicted. I am still impartial to the taste and smell. But I am planning on going up to Goroka for this years Coffee Festival on the 7th and 8th of May. Apparently I have been told it is better than the Goroka show which if that is an indicator it should be fantastic.

Tropfesting
Yes the much hyped - by me - Tropfest festival is taking place in May. I have sent out the invites and people near and far have informed me they are coming. The big attraction this year is the premiere of Wendy's film (the one we made last year) "All and Nothing". I can't wait it should be a blast. I have been testing out the big screen and projector in my living room again. On Saturday I had a few people over to watch "21 Grams".

Triviaing
Something I am not organising but will be going to again this year, the Lae Soroptimist Trivia Night. It was good fun last year. Our table proceeded to get blotto on too much red and still managed to win the thing by a massive margin. It was an impressive effort all round, out of the 20 tables we won with 82 out of a 100 questions and the next best was a pathetic 70 odd. Pity the first prize was a crap set of cheap pots.

Black Cating
My masochistic tendencies are surfacing again. They seem to after I have recently been on a hike. This time I am planning on walking the legendary Black Cat Track in June. It is legendary as it was the path that a whole host of prospective gold diggers used in the 20's and 30's to walk from the coast up into the interior in search of gold. I will be doing it in reverse from Wau down to Salamaua. The hike apparently takes three days but I will stretch it over five with travel time to Wau and from Salamaua taken into account. There is a really good reason I am going to hike this not just because I want to but because it will be good preparation for ...

Kokodaing
Even more legendary than the Black Cat, in fact it immediately springs to mind when thinking of PNG and hiking, is the Kokoda Track. This I am gearing up for in early July. A couple of people will be coming up from Australia to do this with me, and it should be hell but very rewarding. In case you don't know, which if you're not Australian shouldn't be hard, the Kokoda track is the scene of one of Australia's finest military victories. It was where the Japanese were first defeated in a land campaign during WWII. The track is a 96km one from Kokoda, south of Popondetta, to Ower's Corner, north of Port Moresby. It takes 6-8 days of relentless up and down hiking, through jungle and crossing rivers etc. All sounds good.

Not surprisingly due to the last couple of planned activities this book has become a bit of a bible:



12 years old but still good. Maybe LP might want me to update a new edition. Might have to see if they do.