Bell Blog

A maze race

Thu, 10 May 2012 23:11:00 GMT

Can't make it into the maze today? Why not try this game out. We really enjoy it here at the maze!

Favourite Things to do at the maze

Thu, 10 May 2012 23:09:00 GMT

What's your favourite thing to do at the maze? James from Buderim says the thing he likes best about coming to the maze is to "get lost!" James got most holes in two shots on the mini golf course last Saturday.

Long Weekend

Thu, 10 May 2012 23:13:00 GMT

Perfect weather this long weekend!

Meet Jennifer

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 01:50:00 GMT

Meet Jennifer, our school based hospitality trainee. She's only been at the maze for a few months and has already picked up heaps of useful skills! She loves meeting customers, preparing their food orders and has already mastered the skill of frothing milk for cappuccinos and hot chocolates. Ask Jen how to do the puzzle of the month next time you visit the maze, she usually works on weekends and in school holidays.

FREE horeshoe keyring puzzle

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 01:53:00 GMT

FREE horseshoe keyring puzzle valued at $6.95 with every puzzle purchase of $35 or more through Bellingham Maze website - puzzle of the month for April and May is the HORSESHOES.

Holiday Fun

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 01:54:00 GMT

School holidays is a great time to use your prepaid discount vouchers! If you don't have a voucher, you can purchase maze and mini golf combo deals at a discount rate now online family maze and golf combo price is $75 normally $82.

Puzzle of the Month!

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 04:03:00 GMT

Puzzle of the month for March is the Dumb Chuckers! Now here's a tricky puzzle, but a popular one with customers. Try it out at the maze next time you visit, and remember to ask our staff how to do it. If you really love the Dumb Chuckers they can be purchased from our puzzle shop.

Tea House Host with the Most!

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 04:06:00 GMT

Introducing tea house host with the most - Nada Pentecost. You'll always get a warm welcome from Nada, her sunny disposition makes your day! Nada has been working at the maze for 5 years now. Pop in and say hello to Nada soon, she loves meeting new people. Nada works at the maze Monday to Wednesday and every second Saturday. She's looking forward to making you the best cappuccino!

Bell Maze Cafe

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 04:08:00 GMT

Did you know you are always welcome to pop in to our Garden Cafe for a cuppa and scones any time? You don't have to go into the maze. Enjoy meeting a friend for coffee at the garden cafe soon. We look forward to welcoming you.

Some Interesting Maze Terms

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 05:35:00 GMT

Unicursal - Maze without branches. Sometimes called a circuit maze.

Multicursal - Maze with branches and dead ends.

Blind Alley- Branch that is a dead end.

Island - Asection of the maze containing walls not connected to the external wall of the maze. Sometimes also referred to as a detached wall.

Theta - A type of maze composed of concentric circles.

Braid Maze - A type of maze with branches, but without dead ends. All branches loop back to other branches.

Perfect Maze - Maze with no islands or isolated sections. A perfect maze has only one solution.

Delta Maze - Maze consisting of interlocking triangles.

Plainair Maze - A maze on something other than a flat surface. For example, a maze painted on the outside of a cube or sphere.

Source: The UnMuseum

Make Your Own Maze!

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 04:26:00 GMT

Making Mazes

Mazes are fun, if you can't get to Bellingham Maze today why not draw your own?
With tools as simple as a pencil and a piece of paper you can construct your own maze. Make sure you have at least one path between the entrance and the goal and your imagination is the limit!
Full-size mazes can also be drawn on the ground with chalk or in the sand on a beach.
If you aren't a very good drawer, try generating one! maze generator

Pineapple Garden Maze

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 05:36:00 GMT

World’s largest maze, according to the Guinness Book of Records 2001, the Pineapple Garden Maze offers over three miles of paths on three acres. Instead of a traditional English hedge, it is planted with 14,000 colorful Hawaiian plants, including hibiscus, croton, panax, pineapple and heliconia. It is located in Wahiawa, Hawaii at Dole Plantation and certainly looks scary from the air.

Source: http://www.oddee.com/

Peace Maze

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 06:51:00 GMT

The world's second largest permanent hedge maze was designed to commemorate the peace and reconciliation efforts of Northern Ireland in the past century.

The hedge is comprised of 6,000 yew trees, many of which were planted by people from all over Northern Ireland during December of 2000. It covers 2.7 acres (11,000 square meters) with a hedge length of over 2 miles (3,550 meters), a path length of 3,147 meters, and a hedge height of 1.5 meters, which is lower than the usual hedge maze height, done so to facilitate communication and interaction between visitors in different areas of the paths.

Source: http://atlasobscura.com/place/

Worlds Biggest Game of Snakes and Ladders

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 06:42:00 GMT

A-MAZE-ING

Michael Blee, 62, spent several months creating this six-acre maze at Gore Farm in Upchurch, near Rochester, Kent. Its hedges stand 9ft tall. This is the 10th and the most complicated maze Mr. Blee has ever done. He is hoping his giant game makes it into the Guinness Book of Records.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/

Star Trek Maze!

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 06:36:00 GMT

Now this is amazing! York Maze a Star Trek Tribute - UK

Containing 1.5 million individual plants, this maze --just outside York-- covers 32 acres, the equivalent of 15 football pitches, and was designed using satellite technology, which meant the paths could be cut to an accuracy of half a metre. The huge maze was created by Tom Pearcy as a tribute to the 40th anniversary of Star Trek.

Source: http://www.oddee.com/

Australia's Oldest Hedge Maze

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 06:33:00 GMT

This Maze was planted in the 1970's!

Australia's oldest and most famous traditional Hedge Maze now standing over 3 metres high & 2 metres thick. With four mosaic flags to find in each half of the hedge maze, the hundreds of metres of winding paths take you through the South Maze into the Centre Garden before you tackle the North Maze. While not overly complicated it does take a little while to make your way through (some people take longer than others!) The North Maze is a totally different layout to the South Maze, so any tricks you worked out while making your way through the first part, mean absolutely nothing in the other!

The Ashcombe Hedge Maze was planted in the 1970’s with more than 1000 Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) plants. They are planted at around 1 metre intervals, and each year the hedge gets a bit bigger (and the paths get a bit narrower!) Being a drought tolerant plant the hedge only needs irrigation in extreme heat waves. It now stands more than 3m high and 2m thick.

The gardens also boast the world’s oldest rose maze, which blooms 217 varieties of roses on 1,200 bushes.

Source: http://www.ashcombemaze.com.au/

Australia's Largest Hedge Maze

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 06:22:00 GMT

This weeks interesting fact for all you Mazies out there is about Australia's Largest Living Hedge Maze!

Wandiligong Maze is Australia's largest living hedge maze with 2km of pathways, surrounded by gardens. Explore the maze. Smell the heritage roses.

The rotunda was designed by architect Trevor Robinson with inspiration from the grand rotundas of past eras, it has as its centre a beautiful curved iron apex into which hand milled planed and sawn timbers were fitted. The timbers of this superb piece of art are local narrow and broad leafed peppermint, elm, oregon and river red gum along with recycled North Queensland forest red gum, silver quandong, tulip oak and white beech. It is a special example of the woodworkers craft.

Source: http://www .wandimaze.com.au/

Team Building

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 02:32:00 GMT

Are you looking for somewhere to get together with work mates and do a bit of team building?

The maze is perfect for low impact team building activities and it's a great outdoor fun place to relax too. We can put on a bbq for your team while you compete on the rope maze, see who can find the fountain in the middle of the maze and see who can get the best team score on the mini golf course.

We can work with you to a specific theme (email for details and prices) or you can use the facilities and design your own approach. With a rope maze, tyre maze, garden maze, brain-teasing puzzles and mini golf - your team is likely to get to know eachother pretty well by lunch time!! For more details send an email to Sophy admin@bellmaze.com

Halloween Night Maze

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 02:29:00 GMT

Tickets are selling like hot Halloween pumpkins for the FIRST EVER Halloween Night Maze on Saturday 29th October.

So if you want to be part of the spookiest, funnest, glowiest, lostest night you've had in ages, go to the tickets page and purchase your tickets for $29 each or 4 for $100 and save $16!

All the staff are really excited about this special night maze and are all planning their costumes, so it looks like we'll have some pretty unusual looking characters to serve you on the night!

Your ticket includes night maze entry, a round of 18 hole glow in the dark mini golf (first time ever offered) plus a sausage sizzle - great value at just $29 per person.

There'll be fun and games on the night, prizes for the best costume and special offers for you to book your own private night maze function.

We'd hate you to miss out, so grab your tickets while they last, tickets are limited, (there's only so many spooks that we can fit in the maze on the same night!) Looking forward to scaring you on the night!!!

Family calls police after getting lost in a corn maze in the U.S!

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 05:45:00 GMT

We talk about "getting lost" at Bellingham Maze but this is a funny story from Danvers, Massachusetts in the United States!

A family had to call the police when they became disorientated in the maze picture below. Click here to read more!

Maintenance

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 02:27:00 GMT

We've been busy doing lots of cleaning up, painting, new bitumen pathways and other maintenance at the maze over the last few weeks.

The heavy duty guerney has done an amazing job of cleaning up the windmill, Snow White, the mushrooms, even the shade cloth to keep us cool! Everything is looking like new again and has a fresh spring feel to it. Added to that, we are planting lots of new lillypillies through the maze and our gardens are looking fresh too.

Halloween Night Maze

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 10:48:00 GMT

Come dressed for Halloween, be prepared to be scared! First time EVER that a night maze has been offered to the public! First ever glow in the dark mini golf at Bellingham Maze!

Date: Saturday 29th October
Time: 6.30pm - 8.30pm
Place: Bellingham Maze, 274 Tanawha Tourist Drive TANAWHA QLD 4556

Price: $29 per person (or $100 for 4 people - save $16)

Online pre-purchased tickets ONLY - NO door tickets available on the night

Your ticket includes:
- Night maze
- Glow in the dark mini golf
- Sausage sizzle

drinks, ice creams and snacks can be purchased separately on the night.

What to bring:
- A torch
- A full water-bottle
- Wear covered shoes

Prizes for best costume
Games and fun for all

Special rates for booking your own group night maze on the night.

Night maze fun!

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 06:15:00 GMT

If you want a really fun night out for a special occasion, hire the maze at night! It's a fantastic group night out (minimum of 15 people - maximum of 80). Finding the way to the fountain at the middle of the maze is tricky enough during the day, but try finding it by torchlight at night!

Youth groups and birthday parties are the most popular night maze events, but whatever the occasion - having the maze to yourselves at night is a whole lot of fun!

For more information phone the maze on 07 5445 2979 or click here and fill out the form on our groups page.

The World's Longest Hedge Maze

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 06:47:00 GMT

This weeks interesting fact for all you Mazies out there is about the world's longest hedge maze with a pathway length of 2.72 kilometres! We think that is totally amazing!

The team at Bellingham Maze!

Made up of more than 16,000 english yews, Longleat’s spectacular hedge maze --the world’s longest-- was first laid out in 1975 by designer Greg Bright. The Maze covers an area of around 1.48 acres (0.6 hectares) with a total pathway length of 1.69 miles (2.72 kilometres). Unlike most other conventional mazes, it’s actually three-dimensional, with six wooden bridges offering tantalizing glimpses towards the elusive centre of the maze, which is marked by an observation tower for visitors who manage to find it.

Source: www.oddee.com

Holidays are here!

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 06:07:00 GMT

It's holiday time and the best time to visit Bellingham Maze. Get lost amongst all the plants in the huge maze, tie yourself in knots in the rope maze, tire the kids out on the tyre maze, find Snow White and the dwarfs in the maze quiz and challenge the family to a round of mini golf.

It's all waiting for you at Bellingham Maze these holidays. If you're a local be sure to ask for your discount maze entry card for your next visit. See you these school holidays at Bellingham Maze.

Britian's Oldest Hedge Maze

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 23:51:00 GMT

This weeks piece of trivia for all you Mazies out there is about Britian's oldest hedge maze - Hampton Court maze.

Enjoy reading!

The team at Bellingham Maze

The World's Oldest Hedge Maze

The oldest hedge maze in Britain is the Hampton Court maze; not so huge, perhaps, but amazing considering that it was built in 1689 and is written about in novels and poems. Hundreds of thousands of people visit this maze that was created during the time of William of Orange.

The maze at Hampton Court was designed by George London and Henry Wise and commissioned around 1700 by William III. Originally planted using hornbeam and later replanted using yew, the Hampton Court maze covers a third of an acre, is trapezoid in shape and is the UK's oldest surviving hedge maze.

The maze itself is referred to as a multicursal or puzzle maze and is known for confusing and intriguing visitors with its many twists, turns and dead ends. Before the creation of the Hampton Court maze, unicursal or single path mazes were the most popular form of maze in the UK. Unlike the puzzle maze, the single path maze has one path, usually in a spiral shape, winding to a centre point.

Source: http://www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace/maze

Hedge Mazes

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 10:35:00 GMT

For all you Mazies out there "Mazies being the phrase we have coined for people that love mazes" we will bringing you some interesting facts and locations of mazes, with an emphasis on hedge mazes from around the world!

To start off our Mazies tour we would like to provide you with some information on what a hedge maze is and a brief history.

Enjoy the journey!

The team at Bellingham Maze

Hedge Mazes

A Hedge Maze is an outdoor garden maze or labyrinth in which the "walls" or dividers between passages are made of vertical hedges. Hedge mazes evolved from the knot gardens of Renaissance Europe, and were first constructed during the mid-16th century.[1] These early mazes were constructed from evergreen herbs, but, over time, dwarf box became a more popular option due to its robustness. Italian architects had been sketching conceptual garden labyrinths as early as 1460, and hundreds of mazes were constructed in Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries.

Initially, the hedge maze was not intended to confuse, but to provide a unicursal walking path. Puzzle-like hedge mazes featuring dead ends and tall hedges arrived in England during the reign of King William III of England. It was possible to get lost in the much-admired labyrinth of Versailles, built for Louis XIV of France in 1677 and destroyed in 1778. This maze was adorned with thirty-nine hydraulic sculpture groups depicting Aesop's fables. The oldest surviving puzzle hedge maze, at Hampton Court Palace in Surrey, England, was built for King William in the late 17th century. Its distinctive trapezoidal shape is due to pre-existing paths running alongside the maze.

In modern times, hedge mazes have increased in complexity. A hedge maze at Longleat House in Wiltshire, England, designed in 1978, features a three-dimensional maze that uses bridges and a grid-less layout to confuse visitors.

Closed for maintenance

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 03:44:00 GMT

The maze is CLOSED for maintenance on Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th August.

Sorry for any inconvenience, we're open every other day from 9am to 5pm. Come and visit us soon!

Ekka Show Day Opening Hours

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:29:00 GMT

We will be open on the Ekka Show Day public holiday from 9am to 5pm.

If you are looking to escape the Brisbane crowds and enjoy something fun and different to do come on down to the maze, and don't forget you can now buy tickets online!

We hope to see you on Ekka show day!

The team at Bellingham Maze

History of Hedge Mazes

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 05:42:00 GMT

A hedge maze is an outdoor garden maze or labyrinth in which the "walls" or dividers between passages are made of vertical hedges.

History

Hedge mazes evolved from the knot gardens of Renaissance Europe, and were first constructed during the mid-16th century. These early mazes were constructed from evergreen herbs, but, over time, dwarf box became a more popular option due to its robustness. Italian architects had been sketching conceptual garden labyrinths as early as 1460, and hundreds of mazes were constructed in Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries.

Initially, the hedge maze was not intended to confuse, but to provide a unicursal walking path. Puzzle-like hedge mazes featuring dead ends and tall hedges arrived in England during the reign of King William III of England. It was possible to get lost in the much-admired labyrinth of Versailles, built for Louis XIV of France in 1677 and destroyed in 1778. This maze was adorned with thirty-nine hydraulic sculpture groups depicting Aesop's fables. The oldest surviving puzzle hedge maze, at Hampton Court Palace in Surrey, England, was built for King William in the late 17th century. Its distinctive trapezoidal shape is due to pre-existing paths running alongside the maze.

Source: Wiki