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Puzzling World
Puzzling World is a tourist attraction near Wānaka, New Zealand. It began as a single storey maze in 1973, gradually expanding to become an award-winning complex of optical illusions and puzzling rooms and the world's first 3-D maze. Puzzling World is well known for its Leaning Tower of Wanaka and eccentric lavatory styled as a Roman bathroom. As of 2020[update] Puzzling World had received in excess of 4 million visitors and was attracting around 200,000 people a year.
Puzzling World, originally a single level wooden maze at Wānaka in the Queenstown area of New Zealand, opened in 1973. It was the brainchild of Stuart and Jan Landsborough who had been forced to sell their house to raise money for the venture after being refused a bank loan. In the first year the park received 17,600 visitors. A puzzle centre was added in 1979 and a second level added to the maze 3 years later. The park continued to develop with the signature Leaning Tower of Wanaka being added in 1999 with a backwards running clock face. Landsborough credits his father with instilling in him an imaginative business sense and believes that part of the reason for the park's earlier success is because he advertised to attract adults rather than children.
In 2010 the park began a $2.5 million extension that included sculptures designed by local artists, such as Wētā Workshop, props and effects designers for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Since 2004 Puzzling World has been run by Stuart's daughter, Heidi, and her husband, operations manager Duncan Spear. As of 2020 the site receives in the region of 200,000 visitors per annum.
In 2016 Puzzling World was the overall winner of the Ignite Wanaka Business Awards and was described as "high-performing, unique and sustainable...with very low staff turnover." The SculptIllusion Gallery was recipient of a national award in the New Zealand Commercial Building Awards 2014.
During the Wanaka earthquake of 2015 people had to be evacuated while some visitors reported they thought it was part of the experience.
Puzzling World is the official sponsor of Junior Challenge Wanaka, a junior triathlon and part of New Zealand's largest triathlon festival.
The Sculptillusion gallery is a large illusion room which opened in December 2012. It contains impossible objects, perspective paintings and reversible figures. The sculptures include a tap seemingly suspended in mid air and a floating bench, as well as architectural features such as a stone carpet and living wall, created by New Zealand sculptors and designers. The building also contains several Jerry Andrus illusions including Crazy Nuts (an impossible nuts and bolts interactive illusion) and The Magic Square logic puzzle. There is also an area devoted to exhibitions, the first dedicated to advertisements and familiar products which plays with how the viewer sees recognisable company logos. and more recently, "Un-useless" - A large display of impossible or useless inventions and creations by local sculptors and international artists aimed to amuse, confuse and amaze.[citation needed] Other features include stained glass windows with geometrical patterns and an area for conferences and events.
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Puzzling World
Puzzling World is a tourist attraction near Wānaka, New Zealand. It began as a single storey maze in 1973, gradually expanding to become an award-winning complex of optical illusions and puzzling rooms and the world's first 3-D maze. Puzzling World is well known for its Leaning Tower of Wanaka and eccentric lavatory styled as a Roman bathroom. As of 2020[update] Puzzling World had received in excess of 4 million visitors and was attracting around 200,000 people a year.
Puzzling World, originally a single level wooden maze at Wānaka in the Queenstown area of New Zealand, opened in 1973. It was the brainchild of Stuart and Jan Landsborough who had been forced to sell their house to raise money for the venture after being refused a bank loan. In the first year the park received 17,600 visitors. A puzzle centre was added in 1979 and a second level added to the maze 3 years later. The park continued to develop with the signature Leaning Tower of Wanaka being added in 1999 with a backwards running clock face. Landsborough credits his father with instilling in him an imaginative business sense and believes that part of the reason for the park's earlier success is because he advertised to attract adults rather than children.
In 2010 the park began a $2.5 million extension that included sculptures designed by local artists, such as Wētā Workshop, props and effects designers for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Since 2004 Puzzling World has been run by Stuart's daughter, Heidi, and her husband, operations manager Duncan Spear. As of 2020 the site receives in the region of 200,000 visitors per annum.
In 2016 Puzzling World was the overall winner of the Ignite Wanaka Business Awards and was described as "high-performing, unique and sustainable...with very low staff turnover." The SculptIllusion Gallery was recipient of a national award in the New Zealand Commercial Building Awards 2014.
During the Wanaka earthquake of 2015 people had to be evacuated while some visitors reported they thought it was part of the experience.
Puzzling World is the official sponsor of Junior Challenge Wanaka, a junior triathlon and part of New Zealand's largest triathlon festival.
The Sculptillusion gallery is a large illusion room which opened in December 2012. It contains impossible objects, perspective paintings and reversible figures. The sculptures include a tap seemingly suspended in mid air and a floating bench, as well as architectural features such as a stone carpet and living wall, created by New Zealand sculptors and designers. The building also contains several Jerry Andrus illusions including Crazy Nuts (an impossible nuts and bolts interactive illusion) and The Magic Square logic puzzle. There is also an area devoted to exhibitions, the first dedicated to advertisements and familiar products which plays with how the viewer sees recognisable company logos. and more recently, "Un-useless" - A large display of impossible or useless inventions and creations by local sculptors and international artists aimed to amuse, confuse and amaze.[citation needed] Other features include stained glass windows with geometrical patterns and an area for conferences and events.
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