Puzzling World

One of our nearest activities and it has taken us all this time to go and see it!

Just a 15 minute walk up the road you can find Puzzling World, the first of its kind in New Zealand. If you can make it out of the maze, with its towers and walkways to get lost in, then you can have a wonder through the hologram room, weave your way through the tilted house, be spyed on from the hall of faces and finally battle one of many table puzzles over a tea in the cafe.

The Leaning Tower of Wanaka - as it says on the side.
This is the object that greets you as you wonder up to the entrance. Most people stand underneath this and pretend to hold it up while a photo is taken (so did we).

The Maze...
This was very good. There are two ways of doing the maze - either by visiting each of the four turrets in the corner as you find them or in a set order (yellow, green, blue, red). Dave and I tackled the harder 'in order' version and completed it in about an hour, which was not a bad time according to the guide.
What made the maze more interesting was not only that you have to get to the four corners but that there were bridges crossing over parts of the maze, this made it that little bit harder.

After getting out of the maze it was time to relieve myself on the roman toilets - thats me on the right!
This is quite a nice illusion. If you have not already guessed they have painted a scene on the rear wall. You have to stand bang in the middle of the room to get the lines on the floor lining up (a water run) and they have real seats down the side.
There were also some Escher drawings just in front of the toilets which were worth looking at.

Now this was particularly good. The Hall of Faces had moulds of well known faces on the walls (Einstein, Van Gogh, Churchill, etc) and as you walked through and around the room the faces all followed you! You were being watched from every angle.
I was surprised how well this room worked.

You can get an idea of how big this room is now, thats Dave inside taking a picture.

Another spectacle that you see as you drive by the outside.
We think that this is the outside of the Tilted Room. This was dead weird, the whole room is tilted at an angle and we felt quite ill initially! They have a few gadgets on the inside that have been placed slightly off horizontal - when you release the pool ball it appears to roll uphill and straight into a pocket!

Well after all that it was definitely time to sit down and enjoy tea and muffins in the cafe!
A nice touch in the cafe is that they have lots of puzzles scattered about the place which you can pick up and ponder over your snack. Dave and I got through a few muffins and drinks as we spent two hours in the cafe!

And the puzzle that I decided to tackle.
As the owner of Puzzling World (Stuart) said, it looks like a childs game! Given a few simple rules you have to place all the tiles on the board, one at a time. You are not allowed to place any tiles adjacent to, or on top of, any like tiles.
Needless to say I did not solve it - a small consequence was Stuart telling us it was a particularly difficult puzzle.

	The Leaning Tower of Wanaka - as it says on the side. This is the object that greets you as you wonder up to the entrance. Most people stand underneath this and pretend to hold it up while a photo is taken (so did we).
The Maze... This was very good. There are two ways of doing the maze - either by visiting each of the four turrets in the corner as you find them or in a set order (yellow, green, blue, red). Dave and I tackled the harder 'in order' version and completed it in about an hour, which was not a bad time according to the guide. What made the maze more interesting was not only that you have to get to the four corners but that there were bridges crossing over parts of the maze, this made it that little bit harder.
	After getting out of the maze it was time to relieve myself on the roman toilets - thats me on the right! This is quite a nice illusion. If you have not already guessed they have painted a scene on the rear wall. You have to stand bang in the middle of the room to get the lines on the floor lining up (a water run) and they have real seats down the side. There were also some Escher drawings just in front of the toilets which were worth looking at.
Now this was particularly good. The Hall of Faces had moulds of well known faces on the walls (Einstein, Van Gogh, Churchill, etc) and as you walked through and around the room the faces all followed you! You were being watched from every angle. I was surprised how well this room worked.
	You can get an idea of how big this room is now, thats Dave inside taking a picture.
Another spectacle that you see as you drive by the outside. We think that this is the outside of the Tilted Room. This was dead weird, the whole room is tilted at an angle and we felt quite ill initially! They have a few gadgets on the inside that have been placed slightly off horizontal - when you release the pool ball it appears to roll uphill and straight into a pocket!
	Well after all that it was definitely time to sit down and enjoy tea and muffins in the cafe! A nice touch in the cafe is that they have lots of puzzles scattered about the place which you can pick up and ponder over your snack. Dave and I got through a few muffins and drinks as we spent two hours in the cafe!
And the puzzle that I decided to tackle. As the owner of Puzzling World (Stuart) said, it looks like a childs game! Given a few simple rules you have to place all the tiles on the board, one at a time. You are not allowed to place any tiles adjacent to, or on top of, any like tiles. Needless to say I did not solve it - a small consequence was Stuart telling us it was a particularly difficult puzzle.