Ockey Family Adventures: New Zealand Day 8

Today was primarily a driving day as we drove nearly 500 kilometers from Queenstown back to Christchurch. There were some really fun stops along the way, though. We didn't head directly back to Christchurch, but instead took a little detour north to the town of Wanaka. The road was really narrow and winding as it climbed up from the valley floor and through a narrow pass. The views were really amazing, but the wind was cold, and though the road was clear, there was snow on the ground.

The view over Arrowtown was really nice.

It was super windy and freezing up on top.

In Wanaka, there is a place called Puzzling World. It is full of optical illusions. We took forced perspective pictures out front that were supposed to look like we were holding up a building. On the inside we went through several illusion rooms. The first had concave faces of famous people that appeared to follow you wherever you walked. In the second room, there were dozens of optical illusions, many which we've seen on 2-d pages, but to live them in 3-d was really cool. There was one area where you walked to the right side of the room and looked tiny, then as you walked to the left you became a giant. Another room was tilted, so water appeared to run uphill and it was difficult to stand. A final room had multiple perspective art, so you could see each picture or sculpture in two different ways. We spent quite awhile puzzling through these rooms, and laughed a lot along the way.

Lake Wanaka was beautiful.

Mom loved the lone tree on the beach.

The boys are so strong!

Dax could hold it on his back.

Ouch Mark!

Even Mom took a perspective picture.

I can't remember what we were supposed to do with the stairs.

Seth loves the lightning ball.

This room was super trippy. Dax is sliding downhill in that chair.

This is with the camera angled to match the slope.

Mark is a giant and Dax is tiny in this room!

We liked looking at the faces as they followed us around.

These hats were designed for sleeping people waiting for the train.

The boys really enjoyed the Puzzling Museum.

Dax got worn out!

Outside there was also a maze. It was a massive maze made of wooden walls. In order to complete the maze, which included steps up and down, you had to make your way to each corner tower. Once you'd reached all the corners, you had to find the exit. We spent around forty-five minutes wandering around. One of the boys would run ahead and look for forks and deadends, and then run back and report. We made it through pretty quickly in this way. It was a really fun stop, and quite different than anything we'd done on the trip.

We enjoyed running through the maze.

We were always excited when we made it to one of the four towers.

The front area was full of puzzles to play with and the boys would have stayed forever.

We thought this painting in the bathroom was hilarious!

We had lunch before leaving Wanaka at a nice taco place. There was calamari, beef brisket, and even pumpkin and mushroom tacos, all of which were delicious. Then we continued up the road. We still had a long way to Christchurch, and we wanted to make a few more stops.

Once we were over the mountains, the driving went a lot faster, but was a lot more boring. We did come upon some beautiful little towns, most of which were built right on the shores of crystal clear lakes. We stopped to see Mount Cook, which was entirely covered in snow. There is a little Visitor Center along the highway, and Mount Cook was far in the distance, but it was still worth a stop. We arrived back in Christchurch at about seven o'clock and ordered pizza. The boys ate really well because they were hungry, but we didn't really get to bed until after ten. Even though it was primarily a driving day, we all agreed that Puzzling World was a highlight, and the countryside was beautiful.