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Some years back we had a set of adult twins walk the track with us by the name of Allan and Peter Hazell. When they came to trek they had carried with them a framed set of war memorabilia in relation to their father but could not find a resting place for it. On completion of their trek it was given to us for safe keeping until we found a good spot to put it.
We are now happy to announce (whilst probably not the final resting place) that we have proudly placed it on the wall in our Kokoda Wantok Tavern bar area.
For the regular visitors to our website you may recall Allan and Peter coming back for a visit shortly after their mother died to put in some running water in a couple of villages. At the time I wrote up a story on it which can be accessed by clicking onthe following url:
http://www.kokodatrail.com.au/forums/index…0&hl=hazell
The following year, Allan wrote to me and asked if I could provide an airline ticket for himself and his son and in return they would give us two weeks work at Orohaven. Allan was a plumber by trade but ended up in a desk job working for a council on the Sunshine Coast approving the plumbing for building designs.
We jumped at the idea! Allan and his son Jackson arrived and went to work. Our on site plumber Dickson Namari worked alongside Allan and they managed to put in our tanks and run water to the shower blocks/kitchen etc. Allan did not stop work from the time he set foot at Kokoda and we are forever thankful to him and his son.
For anyone in the future visiting Orohaven, please take a minute to look at the framed items behind the bar and think of these two brothers who walked the track in honour of their father.
On that note, anyone, who wishes to bring with them a keepsake we will find somewhere to put it at Orohaven Kokoda Retreat. We now have a wall to place plaques on should anyone wish to bring one along with them. There are two sets of walls, one of which is dedicated to the families who lost loved ones in the Airlines of PNG's plane crash in August 2009. The other one is looking lonely but at some stage in the future we hope it will be full of plaques put there by you our trekkers in memory of your loved ones.
For those of you who are not aware, the words ORO ORO ORO mean WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME in the language of the Oro Province. For those of you who have visited Fiji, its much the same as BULA BULA BULA, everywhere you go in the Oro Province they will call out ORO ORO ORO !!!
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P1060128__640x480_.JPGAllan & Jackson Hazell seen here with Russell Eroro during their visit to Orohaven Kokoda Retreat.
DSCN4880__640x480_.JPGOther volunteers who came up with Allan and Peter seen here digging the ground to put in the pipes needed to run the water from the fast flowing river nearby.
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Water_from_a_tap__640x480_.JPGNot long before their visit a cyclone hit the Oro Province and many bridges were washed away in November 2007. The Kumusi River has had a bridge built but all the other river crossing remain the same in 2010.
So with great difficulty, these guys had to fly all their collected goods into Popondetta and road transport them to Kokoda crossing over the Kumusi River in tyre tubes to get the job done of putting water into a couple of villages.
I am not a plumber and would never have even thought of the idea they came up with, however, it was simple, it worked and now many people benefit from their kind thoughts and hard work.
Crossing_the_Kamusi_River__640x480_.JPGThey also brought with them, supplies for the Kokoda Hospital and the Kokoda Primary School.
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