It’s a Puzzling World After All

3/1/10: Wanaka, New Zealand

Here’s a puzzle for you: there’s a place in Wanaka, New Zealand that Kevin and Zhou can’t wait to go to even though they know the day will end in major frustration, terrible headaches and possibly throwing things at the wall. Name this place.

Time’s up! Today we went to Puzzling World! (From now on I will refer to it as Puzzle World because that’s what it should have been named.)

Puzzle World is a building just outside Wanaka filled with illusions, riddles, questions and of course, puzzles. Attractions run the gamut from…

… A room filled with 3-dimensional heads that follow you as you walk by

… A room that properly displays the difference in size between me and Zhou

… Crazy contraptions such as this tube – the water is actually flowing downhill from left to right

… To ridiculously difficult puzzles.

This is the one the that ate four hours of my afternoon, all to no avail. It seems so simple – all you have to do is get that big block at the top down to the bottom middle by sliding the pieces. There are only so many moves possible, and I could have sworn I tried every single one. Then one of the workers gave me a hint, but it turned out she didn’t even know what she was doing! I banged my head against the wall until the cows came home but just couldn’t figure this stupid thing out. Why would anyone in their right mind ever create a puzzle like this? Just to drive people bonkers? Well, it worked! You’ve succeeded Stuart Landsborough. You’ve defeated me. Are you happy now??

[Pause to collect myself.]

But the best puzzle wasn’t one advertised in Puzzle World. In fact, it’s probably one that very few people (if any) have ever tried here. That’s because I made it up. I like to call my masterpiece “Simulating Steve.” I’ll explain.

Remember the time Zhou wrote about how we’re not really world travelers, we’re just Steve Curry’s groupies? The past few days we decided to take it one step further. We stalked Steve’s New Zealand facebook photos from his trip three years ago, we picked our six favorites, and we made it a goal to recreate them as best as we could. This puzzle started during our cruise of Milford Sound five days ago and then continued today. Have a look at how we did.

(Even though we don’t have Steve’s permission to post his pictures here, we’ll assume he gave up his rights to them when he published them to facebook. Steve, your check is not in the mail.)

Picture 1: Cruising through the Milford Sound. Photographer Zhou endured a lot of sideways rain to get this shot for me. Thanks!

Picture 2: The boats mimicked Maids of Mist ships at Niagara Falls to capture this shot. Unfortunately ours hit it from the reverse angle.

Picture 3: Steve pounds down the tea. All I had was a water bottle.

Picture 4: Now at Puzzle World – you’ll have to remember that Steve was in college when he took these shots. I’m much more mature than this but will do anything to win at my own self-created challenge.

Picture 5: I think the guy in Steve’s photo was a friend. I didn’t have the guts to do this in front of a stranger. One girl did enter the room while Zhou was taking this shot of me. She immediately turned around and left.

Picture 6: The final piece to the puzzle – once again, I had no one to join me in the pose.

Finally, to add to the puzzle, I challenge any one of you to recreate these six shots while traveling the South Island of New Zealand. In fact, anyone who does it will receive an entire blog post dedicated to them and their awesomeness. Good luck!
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Puzzles for Postcards:

We’re not only moving our regularly scheduled PfP up two days because it really fits the theme of this post, but we’re also making a super-puzzle just for you. Enjoy!

Where Am I? Name the country.

Hidden Money. Find the currency of a neighbor of the above country hidden in this nonsensical sentence:

With about ten pounds on my bicycle, I rushed to bring it to the team’s new skipper.

Rhyme Time!

A Southeast Asian skewered meat cookout on the day of rest

Put it Together and Form an Anagram

Simply anagram the combined letters (hint: 15 total) of the “Hidden Money” currency and the “Rhyme Time!” solution to form a place we have enjoyed on our trip.
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Picture of the Day: Zhou and I have cooked a lot of pasta during our month in Australia and New Zealand (you wouldn’t believe how much money it has saved us). To celebrate our last full day in the Eastern hemisphere, we cooked an all out feast.

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A Puzzle Between a Rock and a Hard Place

1/7/10: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

It’s been a weighty three days to say the least, and light Zhou has managed to dodge all heavy posts (all two of them). I personally drained all my serious energy in the Killing Fields / S-21 post, so we’ll see where this goes.

Today we visited the War Remnants Museum, communist Vietnam’s somewhat hazy recollection of what exactly happened during the Vietnam War. Ok, I’ve now spent five minutes writing the opening two sentences of this post and haven’t gotten anywhere. It’s much too difficult and I’m not an eloquent enough writer to cover this subject without inserting too much personal bias. Let me just say that the museum opened both of our eyes quite a bit to the other side of the war – we saw many things that we can’t believe ever happened and we wish we lived in a world where it wouldn’t happen again. It was incredibly difficult walking from one room to the next and see firsthand the pain caused by the war. I know this is a bit cliché, but I honestly think that we’re better people for having visited this very anti-American museum.

Now let me turn my attention to a subject that I feel much more qualified to discuss (although please don’t ask for my credentials): puzzles!
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Puzzles for Postcards

In lieu of today’s much shorter post, I’ve decided to create a new puzzle that is so awesome (and perhaps time-consuming) that the winner will receive two postcards! Preferably one for yourself and one for a friend of yours who is very famous and could promote the blog through their next blockbuster movie or on the front page of the New York Times. It’s your choice though.

The winner of the scavenger hunt puzzle will be the first to comment on a hidden post with the following web address:

http://nohurrycurry.wordpress.com/?????

Your goal is to figure out what five letter word the question marks represent and then be the first to comment on the secret post. The path to the answer is clear: the clues will take you to five different places on our site where a letter will be hidden and the next clue will be awaiting in the comments. Easy enough? Go!

Clue #1 of 5:

Your first letter is located at the end of a post
One that discussed traffic tickets and toast
It was written as we crossed into Kenya
Probably listening to something British or Enya
The Great Gatsby will get you on your way
The post was written on its author’s birthday
(Un-rhyming note: it posted 16 days later)
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Picture of the Day: Whereas I prefer the Color Accent feature, Zhou has now fallen for the black and white photo. One of us is clearly living more in the now than the other.

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Week Five on the Road: A Summary

10/15/09

In numbers:

4 – number of times our truck was stopped by the police
0 – number of tickets Richard ended up getting
60% – odds of the campsite bathroom having toilet paper
13 – max number of inches between butts and the truck seats over rough roads
9 – number of cokes drunk
3 – number of freshly washed items dropped en route to hanging on washing line
1,250 – Malawian kwachas spent on really slow internet
19 – number of times Kevin attempted to dunk a basketball barefoot at Kande beach
0 – number of times Kevin successfully dunked a basketball barefoot at Kande beach
100; 15; 160 – number of yards the guy selling bracelets followed us; number of minutes he waited for us; number of Malawian kwachas spent

In pictures:

View from the Indian restaurant we ate lunch at in Stone Town – yes, Kevin agreed to go to an Indian restaurant

Baobab trees look like giant things of ginger

We haggle with the clothing sellers over our fancy dress items

Our fatty pig spends all day roasting on the spit

Kevin looking extremely tough in his flapper dress/skirt and bandana

Me looking demure in my pink nightie and floral bikini

Hammock central at Kande Beach

The Wheelhouse bar sits in Lake Malawi

The view from inside the Wheelhouse bar

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Puzzles for Postcards: Special Edition

The basis for this puzzle was thought up by Alex (my younger brother – thanks Alex, your postcard is in the mail!). Enjoy!

At the end of the school year, three rival high schools select their best dart thrower to square off in an epic carnival game duel. The rules are simple:

Each player has a stack of darts. Three balloons, one with each player’s name, hang on a wall 15 feet away. The goal is to pop the other contestants’ balloons before they pop yours.

The order of throws is randomly determined prior to the duel. The player chosen to go first gets one shot to pop an opponent’s balloon of his choosing. If he succeeds, the opponent is eliminated and no longer gets to throw. Then the next player goes, etc. until only one balloon remains. Whoever’s name is on that balloon is declared the winner.

In this particular year, both Fidelity High and Mile High each have a stud dart thrower who hits 100% of his throws and is thus the most popular kid in school. Loser High lives up to its name, as its best dart thrower only hits 40% of the throws he takes.

Assuming every thrower knows his competitors’ hit rates and acts rationally, which school is favored to win the competition and what percent of the time will that school do so?

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Picture of the Day: Mr. Turtle thinks about jumping into the mint sauce but decides against it

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