Read some of Dan Johns
http://danjohn.net/
You need to get out of the idea of 'traditional' gym work being the best thing for kiting? General fitness will help, but our idea of how to achieve general fitness has also been so skewed over the years that most people, even those who have trained for years, are doing it wrong. Even the dude who basically invented cardio training has been so badly misinterpreted over the years that most people simply train wrong whilst thinking they are doing themselves good.
So without getting too into it you should try some proper lifting - if you don’t know how then invest in someone who does and I can pretty much guarantee they won’t be a PT in your local gym. Learn how to do some big open chain exercises such as clean and press, or go old school and do some proper burpees – what’s more do them Tabata
http://tabatatraining.org/ style or part of cross training (Crossfit
http://www.crossfit.com/) routine and you can do 20 minutes of work (total not including warm-ups etc) and be fitter (in the widest sense of the word) than you have ever been.
Kiting stresses and places demands on your body on multitude of ways and levels all at once so spending more time doing longer or more traditional exercises won’t help and in fact will probably be to your detriment (overuse) by the time you go on your trip. Change your mindset and do less of your traditional and more of what is actually traditional – lift, pull carry and throw and it will help not just your kiting!
Edit: Found this
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_art ... dybuilding and if you take out the 'bodybuilding' aspect and do this Tabata style then you have everything for a great kiting exercise.