What’s in a name?: Raglan Ranges

Hellfire and Misery, sounds like purgatory, definitely sounds like type two fun, but did the valleys that bear the names live up to their namesake?

The two hours before I was supposed to leave for the ferry certainly felt like purgatory. Who knew trying to cram a whole-day’s worth of work into a couple of hours would result in so much misery and stress? As the clock struck 11 o’clock I discovered that our ferry had been delayed and so it was a very leisurely 1pm arrival for me by train to Wellington Station where I met up with my compatriots Tereza, Rasmus, Christina and Mat. Our party truly had an international flavour having a Czech, Australian, Bulgarian and two kiwis, If we walked into a bar it would sound like the start to a bad joke. Maybe it was?

In such eager anticipation of the glorious tramping that lay ahead, Rasmus accidently dislodged a neighbouring car’s wing-mirror as we queued for the ferry. He reasoned that this was not the worst sin in the world, it was a clean break after-all. The following three hours were spent huddled around the TV screen in the club van trying our best to get the mysterious game DVD to work. Many questionably titled games later and we were on board the ship, rolling about on the choppy seas.