"An Around-the-World-Ticket for Two, Please."

Puzzling World!

Posted by Sarah O'Neill , Monday, 2 May 2011 01:59

The next morning we went to a local attraction called ‘Puzzling World’. There is a really big maze, with a challenge to get to all four corners, and then some crazy rooms with illusions and stuff. We decided to do the maze first, it says it will take about 30 mins to an hour. We found 3 of the corners in about 15 minutes, so we got a bit cocky and thought we were doing really well, it then took us 45 minutes to find the last one! It was sooooo frustrating!!!! We were so close, and kept hitting dead ends, and ending up in the same places, it was nuts! We nearly gave up so many times, there are escape doors if you want to use them, but we got there in the end without cheating!!! Then we moved onto the illusion rooms! There is a room with giant faces of famous people like Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and Einstein, and they follow you around the room wherever you walk, it is very strange! Then we went a crazy topsy turvy room, which is on a 30 degree angle, which totally messes with your brain! There are straight things in it, which makes it even weirder, like a tap and pipes of water, but it looks like it’s going uphill due to the room, it’s nuts! It made me feel really ill, like travel sickness, so I had to get out, it was yucky! Finally we went into the last room which was an illusion where you appear really tall at one end, and really short at the other, which was good fun, you get to watch yourself on a video afterwards! Much fun was had at Puzzling World! Later we drove into Wanaka town to get internet signal and planned some of our time in America which was a good job done! Had another nice evening in the van watching a DVD and drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows!

On Tuesday we drove to Fox Glacier which is a lovely little town, and obviously has a Glacier there! We were booked on the Glacier climb for Wednesday, so we found a Family Parks campsite and had another free night! We went to Lake Matheson which is a nice loop walk, and has ‘reflection point’ where the reflection of Mt Cooke (NZ’s highest mountain) and Mt Tasman is really clear in the water. The water wasn’t as still as we needed, but the reflection was still pretty, just not as clear as in all the postcards! It was a great walk and the weather was amazing! As the weather was set to be so good for the next few days we talked about doing the Skydive here, as it’s over the Glacier, and has spectacular views, and you get a scenic flight over it all into the bargain! We had initially decided against doing the skydive as it was expensive, but then we thought we’d regret it if we didn’t, so we went to the info centre to find out if they had space for us, and ended up getting booked for 7.45am on Thursday!!!! Tried not to think about it too much as it was a pretty scary thought! I made our sandwiches for the Glacier climb and then we had an early night ready for the big day ahead!