Honeymoon Day 11 - Wanaka
Wanaka is really an interesting town. We didn't feel like doing any hiking because the hills were pretty open, and it was sunny and warm, so we checked out some of the other sights during our full day there. We had been recommended to a place called Puzzling World, and I'm really glad we ended up there as it was really quite unique. There were two main attractions there, a sort of interactive museum of optical illusions, and a life size wooden maze. We checked out the museum first. Below are some pictures from their life-size Ames room.
Because of the slope of the room you can appear the same height as you are when standing next to each other in the middle, but when you are on either side,one of you appears tiny and the other enormous! Not pictured is the warning on the wall where the camera spot is that reminds you that the ceiling height is very low, so you shouldn't come past that yellow line. Even from inside the room the illusion can be seen, and it was pretty neat.
Below, the columns use negative space to create the silhouette of a man, which I made Charlie imitate. I really tried to get pictures that weren't just the two of us standing, smiling at the camera, and this was a fun place to get some strange shots.
Here I am sharing a levitating bench with two statues. They also had lots of depth illusions that photographed quite well, but almost too well. It really took some movement to appreciate them. They also had a hologram hall, with a ton of 3D holograms that were really neat, but we didn't even try to take pictures of.
After the illusion rooms, we set out to attempt the maze. It was built out of wood, with solid fence walls that you could, if you were desperate, crawl under, but that you couldn't really see through. It was also multi-level, with stairs leading to bridges. This added a ridiculous complexity to the maze, as even from a high vantage point you couldn't see where all the paths went.
There were four colored towers - red, yellow, green, and blue, located in the corners of the maze. The objective was to find the towers, and then the exit. The hard mode was to find the towers in a particular order and then get out. We managed to find all four of the tours in about 30 minutes, and then proceeded to spend another hour trying to get out of the maze. I'll admit to getting a little hangry/frustrated by the time we hit that 60 minutes in the maze mark.
Eventually, though, we did make it out of the maze, after watching some people from a tower go down one path and somehow pop out near the exit. We spent a few more minutes playing with the puzzle toys in the lobby, solving a tower of hanoi with seven rings, and then went to get lunch.
As usual, Charlie's yo-yoing was a hit with the other diners on this deck. Next to this restaurant was a sporting goods store, so we checked it out and found another cool disc golf disc to try out. Naturally, since we weren't in the mood to hike or attempt lake sports, we hit up the local disc golf course! This turned out to be a great idea, and a fun way to enjoy the scenery.
After we were finished with that course, we drove over to another park to walk around, and see if we could find the short course there. This one wasn't nearly as well marked, but it was a really good time strolling and taking in the sun.
We did manage to find all of the baskets in this 9-hole course eventually, and most of the tees. We did have to make up our own tees for a couple of the holes, which was kind of funny, but also entertaining. This course was neat because it had some of the baskets up high on rocks, and some interesting lines from tee to basket. Charlie ended up throwing from inside a pine tree at one point, which was particularly amusing, though I think also quite awkward.
Because of the slope of the room you can appear the same height as you are when standing next to each other in the middle, but when you are on either side,one of you appears tiny and the other enormous! Not pictured is the warning on the wall where the camera spot is that reminds you that the ceiling height is very low, so you shouldn't come past that yellow line. Even from inside the room the illusion can be seen, and it was pretty neat.
Below, the columns use negative space to create the silhouette of a man, which I made Charlie imitate. I really tried to get pictures that weren't just the two of us standing, smiling at the camera, and this was a fun place to get some strange shots.
Here I am sharing a levitating bench with two statues. They also had lots of depth illusions that photographed quite well, but almost too well. It really took some movement to appreciate them. They also had a hologram hall, with a ton of 3D holograms that were really neat, but we didn't even try to take pictures of.
After the illusion rooms, we set out to attempt the maze. It was built out of wood, with solid fence walls that you could, if you were desperate, crawl under, but that you couldn't really see through. It was also multi-level, with stairs leading to bridges. This added a ridiculous complexity to the maze, as even from a high vantage point you couldn't see where all the paths went.
There were four colored towers - red, yellow, green, and blue, located in the corners of the maze. The objective was to find the towers, and then the exit. The hard mode was to find the towers in a particular order and then get out. We managed to find all four of the tours in about 30 minutes, and then proceeded to spend another hour trying to get out of the maze. I'll admit to getting a little hangry/frustrated by the time we hit that 60 minutes in the maze mark.
Eventually, though, we did make it out of the maze, after watching some people from a tower go down one path and somehow pop out near the exit. We spent a few more minutes playing with the puzzle toys in the lobby, solving a tower of hanoi with seven rings, and then went to get lunch.
As usual, Charlie's yo-yoing was a hit with the other diners on this deck. Next to this restaurant was a sporting goods store, so we checked it out and found another cool disc golf disc to try out. Naturally, since we weren't in the mood to hike or attempt lake sports, we hit up the local disc golf course! This turned out to be a great idea, and a fun way to enjoy the scenery.
After we were finished with that course, we drove over to another park to walk around, and see if we could find the short course there. This one wasn't nearly as well marked, but it was a really good time strolling and taking in the sun.
We did manage to find all of the baskets in this 9-hole course eventually, and most of the tees. We did have to make up our own tees for a couple of the holes, which was kind of funny, but also entertaining. This course was neat because it had some of the baskets up high on rocks, and some interesting lines from tee to basket. Charlie ended up throwing from inside a pine tree at one point, which was particularly amusing, though I think also quite awkward.
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