NZ travelogue: The puzzling world in Wanaka

Actually, we had a lot of fun at the Puzzling World in Wanaka. The indoor exhibits were enough to occupy the whole morning without having to go into the outdoor maze. By the way, it costs you extra if you plan to get yourself lost in the maze. We didn't try it because we were running rather short of time.

One of the highlights of the Puzzling World was the Hall of Following Faces. There are models of some of the most famous faces in the world, such as Lincoln, Churchill and Mandela, and when we walked around the room, we could positively feel the faces of these figures turn and follow you around the room. And it isn't only a left-to-right movement; if you squat down or jump up, you can see the faces turn to look up or down at you, no matter where you are. It was creepy enough but the effect could have been worse if they had Hitler or the embalmed Lenin there as well. But of course, they didn't.

We entered the Ames Room next and were blown away by the use of false perspectives here. This was the same effect employed to good effect in the Lord of the Rings trilogy of films when they had the tall Gandalf and short Hobbits together. When viewed from the windows, the room looked perfectly normal but once we stepped inside, we understood the science that went into making the room looked normal from the outside but distorted from the inside.

And the third main attraction for us was the Tilted House. Everything exhibited here were tilted at an angle and they completely fooled us at first as we couldn't imagine that we were moving about at an angle and not falling down. As you can see from the pictures below, the effect made us look like we were defying gravity.

So that's it, our visit to the Puzzling World. Lots of fun for kids AND adults alike. One last picture of Saw See attempting to hold up the main outdoor exhibit which is the Leaning Tower of Wanaka.