Wanaka/Lake Hawea April 1 - 2

We left Queenstown feeling a bit sad as we'd loved the place so much - if we had more money we'd probably have stayed longer and done more crazy adrenaline sports, but seeing as we didn't the day would have been wasted! So we set off for Wanaka (only a short drive) and stopped at Puzzling World enroute.

Stuart Landsborough started the tourist attraction 35 years ago with a huge maze. This attracted many visitors and ever since then he has been expanding the place to what it is today, an improved maze, illusion rooms, puzzles, and oddities!

We started off in the illusion rooms with various pictures you often get sent by email, looked at same crazy holograms and then tried to figure out several puzzles (watch out in the pub for these). We then went into another room which is all tilted with more illusions, it was a strange experience as just walking in there makes you feel all light headed and confused alone without the items inside. We then got to go in another room where for once I was a giant and Sean was a midget!

After acting like a kid for half an hour we tackled the maze. Being lazy we went for the standard challenge rather than the difficult one and were advised it takes 30 minutes to one hour to complete. We did pretty well and found all four corners within about 15-20 minutes but then had to find our way out which is where the problem started! It was pretty hot in that maze and after another 20 minutes we were hot and getting frustrated, by the time we finished it had taken us an hour and we were ready to leave the place!

We stopped for some lunch sitting by Lake Wanaka and then wandered around the small town before moving to our free campsite right on Lake Hawea for the night.