Having trekked Kokoda myself, I was saddened by the news of Aussie mum Samantha Killen, age 36, having died on the track. Sam leaves behind loving husband Dion and two children, a boy aged 5 and a girl aged 3.

There are no clear reports as to what caused her death, only that she felt dizzy one day into the trek and then passed away. I heard something about dehydration  too. We can’t speculate and until there is further news, there is no point.

The Nine MSN source says that Sam was on the trek with her father aged 62, her brother and a family friend. They were trekking Kokoda to honour her grandfather who had fought for Australia during the one of the toughest WWII battles.

Trekking Kokoda

The preparation involved before taking on the trek is arduous and then actually being there is even more so. I was completely out of my comfort zone. It was my greatest personal challenge to choose to do this. I’ve said it before that mud and me just don’t mix.

The article I read said that Sam trained every morning for 12 months. My hat goes off to her. I wasn’t that diligent. My training only started 4 months before the due time. It was a sudden decision that I chose to go.  However, I did train with my personal trainer and he was the one who arranged the trek for a group of 12 of us. We also had two nurses and our guide David, a fireman in his day job, who had already trekked Kokoda 7 times before leading our group. There was so much experience in medical and first aid which I was tres happy about. Even with all the training, nothing can prepare you for the actual track itself.

Besides the fact that I had to be medivac’d out because I slipped and broke my wrist (and needed surgery) 6 days in, missing the last day and a half of the trek, another member of our group had rolled his ankle on the first day into the trek and managed to walk 4 days on it before he was also medivac’d out, our group were quite fit and made the trek in record times (according to our guide).

Hype about Trekking Kokoda

The thing that upsets me the most is when there is so much hype about trekking Kokoda. Seriously folks. Get a grip on L-I-F-E!

We live in a fast paced world. Crossing the street can cause death. Driving a car can cause death. Stress can cause death. We are born, and one day, we die. Where and when that happens is not up to us. There are incidences where people die in their sleep even and sometimes, not just elderly people. Like Kurek Ashley says, If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.

Trekking Kokoda is perhaps perceived to be more dangerous than crossing the street in your local shopping centre. I slipped and fell many times while on the trek. I climbed the rugged edge of the mountain with only enough room for one at a time. Was I scared? Yes, in fact. Every time I lost concentration and thought about my kids and WHAT WAS I THINKING TREKKING KOKODA, I became weak and filled with emotion. Couldn’t this happen in any circumstance in our everyday lives? While we’re driving our cars maybe?

Life is a Challenge

The point I want to get across is that if we don’t challenge ourselves in life, when it’s time to go, we could be filled with regret at not having taken risks or enough risks while we had the chance to. Hearing people say that no-one should trek Kokoda and leave the local villagers to be invaded by mining company’s in my humble opinion is BS. It’s way too beautiful a landscape and also very historic to be dredged up by mines. When I am asked about the trek, I encourage everyone to do it. If not Kokoda, then another challenge which they will be proud of achieving.

Rest in Peace Samantha Killen and may your children grow to be proud of their mum who chose to take a risk and challenge herself to go and trek Kokoda.

God Bless

Last weekend I was in Brisbane with an awesome group of people, including Kurek Ashley. My friend and mentor Sean Rasmussen organised the weekend and while we were on a dinner river cruise, being Internet Marketers, we started talking about a challenge to see who could outrank who for the keyword Kurek Ashley. I should mention, not only outrank, but rank on the front page of google, lol.

Around the middle of last year, you may remember I wrote about Kurek Ashley’s book, How Would Love Respond which went on to be a best seller.

I’m reading it now for the second time and getting so much more out of it.

Kurek Ashley is a Peak Performance Coach. He coached our Aussie Girls Beach Volleyball team to win Gold at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

He has mentored thousands of people through his program Life Success Club which comes in the form of a CD per month. In this program, he tells how to change dis-empowering habits to empowering habits making our life experiences richer.

Kurek Ashley Challenge

The rules for the Kurek Ashley Challenge are as follows and anyone can join in:

1. Publish a blog post about Kurek Ashley
2. Attempt to rank your blog post as high as possible on Google for the keyword: Kurek Ashley
3. Use Twitter to assist in building a trend for the tag #KurekAshley. Tweet a message with your blog URL and include the tag #KurekAshley
4. Encourage others to Re-Tweet this tag on Twitter
5. Include a link in your blog post linking to Kurek’s Twitter account as such: Kurek Ashley

So go ahead and join in. Whitehat techniques only please. There are 5 days left so I dare you to beat me to the top!  Will I see you on the front page of google?

My site is being revamped and while the new Buzzing with Ange is under construction, I thought it may be a great idea to list some of the best and most visited posts that I have written to give you something to think about while waiting for the new look!

I will list them in categories for you so feel free to poke around and refresh yourselves with some favourites, some of my personal successes and some of my personal failures. They are all here.  Have fun and I will keep you updated with how the site is coming along. BTW, if you right click the links to open in a new tab, you can keep this list open

Personal Development

Personal Development and Wealth Creation

What Does Sex Have To Do With Success

Personal Development Can Turn Around An Idea Problem

Do You Think Too Much

My Greatest Personal Challenge To Date

Your Guide to Happiness 101

Falling In and Out of Love

Free Hugs/Humanity

Free Hugs Day in Melbourne

Free Hugs Day Melbourne Video

Humanitarian Initiative

Personal/Kokoda

I am an Adrenalin Junkie

My Excellent Kokoda Adventure:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Your Favourites

Of course if there is something I haven’t listed here that you really liked, please add the post url in your comment so that I can add it to this list.

Enjoy your reading and I’d like to hear your thoughts. I’m really looking forward to a new look Buzzing with Ange and will keep you posted on the progress.

One thing about PNG, every afternoon around 4pm, the low clouds set in and it rains.  Today was no different.  The boys went down to shower under a natural waterfall as they were ready first and then us girls went down to the creek… it was freezing and we couldn’t use soap so we refreshed ourselves and headed back to camp.  This was our first experience of washing in a natural habitat and once back at camp, we warmed ourselves and waited for dinner and sent to bed around 7pm, lol!

No-one slept well being the first night out and we were woken up at 5:30am ready to head off at 7am.  All our packs had to be ready for the porters and off we went as soon as breakfast was over.

Day 2

Day 2 saw us trekking for an arduous 8 hours.  I was generally in a content mood and concentration of where to put my feet was imperative.  My porter, Armstrong, is an angel.  A young man not much taller than me, 24 years of age and very, very strong.

There were times when we were climbing that he would carry my daypack as well as my other pack, and also pull me up those big steps.  I kept thinking… “What on earth was the Creator thinking when she designed this unrelenting terrain and why didn’t she make my legs longer!”

There were many places today where I had to literally climb up with hands as well as feet and places where I had to slide down on my backside.  Also, many trees had fallen over the track which were difficult to get over and having the camera out for these places just wasn’t an option.  I was already the slowest on the team although I did lead the first climb of the day at a pretty steady pace.  After that, I let everyone in front of me.  I was spent and didn’t want the pressure of having them behind me for the rest of the time.

More steep climbs up and down and whenever we get down to a river crossing, there is always a very hard climb up to camp.  We were always happy to get to the end of the day and clean up a little.

Day 3

Day 3 was an even longer day.  About 9 hours.  None of us carried a mirror so no one had any idea what they looked like and probably just as well.  Judging from the photos, I’m glad I couldn’t see myself.

Up and down 45 degree sides of mountains is difficult and especially when there is mud involved.  Did I mention the mud already?  I had no idea how much mud would be on the track.  OMG!! Enough for 100 years or more worth of beauty treatments… it was like walking through slops… squelch, squelch, squelch… I can still hear it.

Another thing… I had no idea we would be walking on the side of a mountain where in some spots, there was no room for wrong footing whatsoever!  A body width and rocks jutting out to step on… not even a path!  Excuse me for saying so but I definitely grew balls that day!  A girl like me trekking in that place… and I have two beautiful young girls at home to think of!  What was I thinking and what was my partner thinking letting me take this on??  This is what went through my head at the end of the day.  If I thought of home I would get emotional and have to quickly distract myself to keep my head straight.  Not being able to call home was also difficult however, I’m glad I wasn’t in touch.  It would only have made me want to go home.  Knowing that my emotional intelligence would be challenged, I could change my mindset so that I would be back on the track and concentrating on the task at hand.

Before we reached camp on this day at Templeton’s 1 campsite, there was a river crossing I couldn’t have imagned at Eora Creek.  Lots of boulders and a zig zag mashup of logs and more boulders that seemed to go on forever.  I had two porters escort me across this one and once over the other side, our guide Dave was waiting so I politely asked him “Was there no other way?” He laughed and took off up the mountain to camp.

Having shared my feelings and parts of the track here is in no way to put you off doing the trek for yourself if you are so inclined.  Rather, it is to demonstrate that it is possible for any of you to do it.  It’s not for an exclusive few and every year, there are more and more trekkers heading to Kokoda to experience it for themselves.  I know there are other equally challenging treks out there.  This is the only one I have taken on so far. The beauty and awesomeness of the landscape is truly worth it along with the experience to grow and face this challenge head on.

More to come……

It seems only fitting that my 100th post on Buzzing with Ange is to share with you my greatest personal challenge to date. Seeing as this blog is about personal development, it is important that I let you in on how my journey is progressing and some of the challenges that I take on. I am involved with a fitness group who have organised to trek the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea in June of this year.

For Australians, this is the setting of an extremely difficult time during World War II where we lost the most number of diggers – 6000, in the shortest space of time – 7 months. The Aussie soldiers held the Japanese back from taking Port Moresby by land, retreating many times and firing back to exhaust the Japanese soldiers into re-thinking their strategy which saw them file back to the Northern part of the Island.

The Kokoda Trail is a single file footpath that stretches for 96 kilometres (about 60 miles) in a north/south direction, straight across the Owen Stanley ranges in Papua New Guinea. My good Aussie mate Allan and I will be combining our efforts to bring you some history of the Kokoda Trail, along with the training I am undertaking and most importantly, the mindset behind taking on such a feat.

Choosing to trek Kokoda Trail

This is not a decision I made lightly and for those that know me on a personal level would know that I am not the kind of girl to get my hands dirty, camping and hiking in the outback is not something I do on a regular basis as I am a creature of comforts and I really, really like hot showers, clean toilets, meals cooked in a clean kitchen and a comfy bed with a cozy doona/comforter to snuggle into. So, do you think I am going to have to have a paradigm shift in order to get through this challenge and change my mindset around creature comforts? I think it will open up new possibilities for me in the way I perceive things, and I will definitely be in need of a Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel on this trip.


Kokoda Memorial 1000 Steps

Saturday just gone was our first official training day as a group and I was whisked off to the Dandenong Ranges here in Melbourne to climb the 1000 steps which are part of the Kokoda memorial. I didn’t count them as I was too busy trying to catch my breath. I have plenty of work to do on my fitness level in preparation for this adventure so stick with me and I will give updates on my progress.

I will leave you with a sample of what I am to expect once we land in Port Moresby… tell me your thoughts and if someone here has already taken this challenge on, please share your experience. There are many expeditions organised on regular basis through various companies.

Kokoda Adventure

EDIT: Thought I would add the links to my story as this post does get a bit of traffic.

My Excellent Kokoda Adventure Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

It’s funny you know… how many times can you recall saying that you can’t do something because you can’t afford it. I bet those words have sprouted from your mouth 1000 times or more over the years… or have they? Don’t worry, I also have been guilty of this in the past.

Since I started with personal development, my idea of not being able to afford something has changed to how can I afford something. We are all born into our own set of circumstances whether it be the country we live in or the family we are born into. We become conditioned in a certain way of thinking and that is what we believe to be so. So unless we change our thoughts and our idea about money, we may never be able to afford that cruise or that skiing trip or even that new car as an example.

Affirmations

Before I came across some of my teachers like Bob Proctor and Dr John Demartini from The Secret, I never believed that I could achieve any kind of financial freedom. I always believed that I had to go to school, get good grades, find a good job and then live off my retirement money which really doesn’t seem to be able to cover the bills for most retirees these days.So let me enlighten you on the 100 people story. The following facts exist for every 100 people at age 65 in Australia.

• 25 are dead

• 20 have annual incomes under $10,000 (below poverty level)

• 51 have annual incomes between $10,000 and $35,000

• 4 have annual incomes over $35,000

• yet 1 in every 100 is a millionaire

Here’s another interesting fact:

When Social Security was started, there were 16 people working for every one person on the program. Today, that ratio is 3:1 and in the next 12 years, it is projected to be 1:1 (Source: The Millionaire Next Door)

Scary stuff I say! It’s not a pretty picture that is painted here. So if the idea problem is that we don’t have enough money, how are we going to change our way of thinking and turn that around?

Affirmations

I have found that using affirmations is a great way to help re-train the brain if you like and change that prior conditioning that I was brought up with. I love my parents and I am grateful that they gave me life and because they came from a generation that was born before WWII, when there was a real scarcity factor, that is the way they were conditioned and therefore passed it onto me. So, by using affirmations, it has helped me to think differently and scarcity need not be a factor any more. After all, we do live in an abundant universe where we have all that we need. We just need to tap into the abundance.
Some examples of affirmations are:

• I am grateful that I live in an abundant universe

• I now release any and all barriers to my financial and personal success

• I earn, save, spend and invest my money wisely

• My money creates more money

• Every thought I have is transformed into abundance

Simple statements that can be read every day at different intervals throughout your day. You can repeat them whilst showering in the morning to start your day in that state of gratitude and abundance. I even know a couple of people who get on a rebounder and chant their affirmations while they are bouncing! Whatever works for you is great and if you need to adjust the words in the statements a little to make it feel right for you, all the better. Go ahead and create your day to one of abundance. These were examples I thought I would share with you.

Now if you have read this and think that money is not important, I challenge you to walk into a supermarket, fill up your trolley and try to walk out without paying for it. How far do you think you will get? Money is important. Some people would like to have more of it so I am sharing a few things that have helped me change my mindset around it and learn how to make it and how to make it work for me! I am on my way to achieving the financial freedom that I desire and live the life I love to live. How about you?