When we grew up we always had treasure hunts at Christmas - and in time my parents handed to me the baton of coming up with an annual treasure hunt.
These days I only tend to do them when we are at home for Christmas, as I usually base the clues on things that are around the house. So this year we were at home, and this was our treasure hunt...
what3words.com
The key to the treasure hunt this year was what3words.com. This website has split the earth into 3x3m sectors, each with a unique identifying address. It’s great for places that don’t have a proper address (some parts of the developing world) or if you need to be rescued from somewhere remote (on a mountain, say). Everyone should have the app.
Our garden is big enough that it is split into numerous sectors, so it’s great for a treasure hunt as well.
The first clue
The first clue was in an envelope that I put under the Christmas tree along with all the other presents. Inside was the following:
Honeybee door handles
Key cupboard
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Gnomeo and Juliet
Window seat cupboard
Guarded by a wooden redcap
Matilda
Elves Lego
These are all clues to locations around the house. So the first clue refers to a cupboard which has honeybees on the handles. In each of the locations was a further clue, in one of four groups.
Clue Group A
This consisted of two clues: a series of empty boxes that need to be completed like a crossword, and a QR code to what3words. (It turns out you can create your own QR code really easily.)
The other three groups of clues filled in the words.
Clue Group B - solution to word #1
This consisted of two clues - another set of empty boxes and a set of clues along the lines of:
1 - How many birds flying over Dunstanburgh Castle?
2 - Port of Ness artist
3 - Number of windows on Megan’s study door
4 - How many copies of the Road to Huisinis are there?
And so on.
The answer to the first clue is in a picture we have of Dunstanburgh Castle that hangs in our kitchen - there are eight birds, and “eight” is the word needed. The second letter is highlighted in the grid, and that's the first letter of the word needed for Clue Group A, above.
Clue Group 3 - solution to word #2
This consisted of three clues:
Harry Potter and the...
A QR code which read “page-letter”
And this:
764-1
202-5
486-3
84-2
The idea is to find the first letter on page 764 of a certain Harry Potter book (the letter “t”), and so on. I made it a little harder by not specifying which Harry Potter book - but only one of them has 764 pages (The Order of the Phoenix) so it wasn’t that hard.
(And I should say that these are the versions that we have - the clues may not work for all copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.)
Clue Group D - solution to word #3
This was just a picture of a bar of soap.
Putting it all together
Typing the three words into what3words identified that the treasure was in our garden shed.
It took about 20 minutes to solve, and as usual took much longer than that for me to prepare. The technology was a bit tricky, and didn't work first time (neither Megan nor Mrs H had used either QR codes or what3words before, so there was a bit of a learning curve there).
But that didn’t matter, I had a lot of fun doing it and I had fun watching the hunt being solved.
Recycling on New Year's Eve
My brother was due to join us for New Year's Eve, and a couple of days before he asked if I could prepare a treasure hunt. He was providing the treasure (thankfully), and I thought I would use the same structure of hunt. I changed the location of the treasure, but used the same basic approach.
I changed the picture clue to an Enigma code (created using the splendid Enigma Simulator App), with the following four clues:
Enigma Simulator App
K Railway, 5 printing groups
Rotors: EFGH
DNYGB XPTF
These days I only tend to do them when we are at home for Christmas, as I usually base the clues on things that are around the house. So this year we were at home, and this was our treasure hunt...
what3words.com
The key to the treasure hunt this year was what3words.com. This website has split the earth into 3x3m sectors, each with a unique identifying address. It’s great for places that don’t have a proper address (some parts of the developing world) or if you need to be rescued from somewhere remote (on a mountain, say). Everyone should have the app.
Our garden is big enough that it is split into numerous sectors, so it’s great for a treasure hunt as well.
The first clue
The first clue was in an envelope that I put under the Christmas tree along with all the other presents. Inside was the following:
Honeybee door handles
Key cupboard
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Gnomeo and Juliet
Window seat cupboard
Guarded by a wooden redcap
Matilda
Elves Lego
These are all clues to locations around the house. So the first clue refers to a cupboard which has honeybees on the handles. In each of the locations was a further clue, in one of four groups.
Clue Group A
This consisted of two clues: a series of empty boxes that need to be completed like a crossword, and a QR code to what3words. (It turns out you can create your own QR code really easily.)
Clue Group B - solution to word #1
This consisted of two clues - another set of empty boxes and a set of clues along the lines of:
1 - How many birds flying over Dunstanburgh Castle?
2 - Port of Ness artist
3 - Number of windows on Megan’s study door
4 - How many copies of the Road to Huisinis are there?
And so on.
The answer to the first clue is in a picture we have of Dunstanburgh Castle that hangs in our kitchen - there are eight birds, and “eight” is the word needed. The second letter is highlighted in the grid, and that's the first letter of the word needed for Clue Group A, above.
Clue Group 3 - solution to word #2
This consisted of three clues:Harry Potter and the...
A QR code which read “page-letter”
And this:
764-1
202-5
486-3
84-2
The idea is to find the first letter on page 764 of a certain Harry Potter book (the letter “t”), and so on. I made it a little harder by not specifying which Harry Potter book - but only one of them has 764 pages (The Order of the Phoenix) so it wasn’t that hard.
(And I should say that these are the versions that we have - the clues may not work for all copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.)
Clue Group D - solution to word #3
This was just a picture of a bar of soap.
Putting it all together
Typing the three words into what3words identified that the treasure was in our garden shed.
It took about 20 minutes to solve, and as usual took much longer than that for me to prepare. The technology was a bit tricky, and didn't work first time (neither Megan nor Mrs H had used either QR codes or what3words before, so there was a bit of a learning curve there).
But that didn’t matter, I had a lot of fun doing it and I had fun watching the hunt being solved.
Recycling on New Year's Eve
My brother was due to join us for New Year's Eve, and a couple of days before he asked if I could prepare a treasure hunt. He was providing the treasure (thankfully), and I thought I would use the same structure of hunt. I changed the location of the treasure, but used the same basic approach.I changed the picture clue to an Enigma code (created using the splendid Enigma Simulator App), with the following four clues:
Enigma Simulator App
K Railway, 5 printing groups
Rotors: EFGH
DNYGB XPTF
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