Puzzled

On Sunday, Seb and I went to Puzzling World, which is another quirky place here in Wanaka. The first part is to do with visual deception - they had a hologram room which was impressive, then there was the Following faces room which was down right creepy - Einstein, Mother Theresa and Nelson Mandela etc eyeballing you whereever you go! The Tilted Illusion Room was built at a 13 degree slope really messes with your balance - again it was pretty impressive and it was very clever. The final attraction was Ames Illusion Room which was used to make things look bigger at one end oa room than the other - it was used in Lord of the Rings for some of the films sets to make people look hobbit sized. I thought there was another attraction after that as I walked down a ramp at the side but it only turned out to be the wheelchair access! I almost wet myself when I realised it - I was so excited about what illusion it could have possibly been!

The second part of Puzzling World was agiant maze in which you were challenge to reach the 4 towers in each corner - the great thing about it is that it looks simple and all the adults asume that it's just for kids, but it was so difficult - I must have walked over 5 kilometres by the end of it!

As you leave (or enter) there is a huge room with little brain teasers and puzzles scattered all over the place - you've probably seen these types of puzzles before but this place has all of them and their variations too. Seb and I must have looked like a couple of chimps banging bricks together!

That evening was otherwise uneventful apart from a German guy (called Michael) who, in a drunken stoned haze, told us what the meaning of life was and then he proceeded to rip into an American woman (Ann, who is travelling with her husband and two kids), telling her about how evil and corrupted the USA is and how she was ignorant and so on..........it was hard to listen to at times and foolishly, (as I have a bit of a big mouth) I entered the conversation. To quote Basil Fawlty "Just don't mention the war.....I did it once but I think I got away with it".

The next day was Labour Day and as the locals all rushed to the shores of the lake en masse, Seb, Luke and I went for a walk up the lake to see as far round the mountain as we could. The Mt Roy track was shut for lambing season so we improvised alittle and jumped a few barbed wire fences to get the best view. The weather was fabulous yet again and when we reached our destination, we sat on the top of a hill with panoramic views of the lake and the Treble Cone ski fields that aren't visible from Wanaka.

The walk was about 20km in total so we treated ourselves with some fush n' chups when we got back to Wanaka - Luke was moving in with a mate nearby so he grabbed his stuff and left the hostel, while Seb and I thought it would be a good idea to have a dip in the lake to cool off. It was so cold, my feet hurt! I only managed about 5 minutes before I had to get out.

My last day in Wanaka was to catch up on a few things and do some washing, however, a scandal has been uncovered. I have been very lucky for the last 5 months as nothing has really gone missing, but that lucky streak has ended - someone stole my Jam! Fellow travellers will understand that Jam (notice the capital letter?) becomes one of your most trusted companions and for someone to take it away from you is potentially the most heinous of crimes in the Backpackers handbook - whoever took it - I hope you can live with yourself.