I’m skipping puzzle 1D, but you shouldn’t. It is a very nice sudoku-like logic puzzle, with a clever final extraction. But the logic puzzle itself is the star, and I really enjoyed it. It doesn’t make for a good blog though… Perhaps I will figure out how to take time-stamped photos as I work on paper “fill in the grid” puzzles like crosswords and sudoku.

2A was much different, pretty much a pure Aha puzzle.  The first night I gave up quickly, having no idea. Fortunately, the next day I came back and got it by just throwing crazy ideas up against it until one worked.  

Total solving time was under 55 minutes, but somehow that doesn’t reflect how hard it was. Maybe sleeping on it was the key, and my brain did the hard work overnight.

The puzzle is available at http://puzzle.cisra.com.au/puzzles.php  and my log is after the cut.

Log:

0:00:00

Opening puzzle

0:00:23

Printing. Looks … confusing.

0:01:13

So box one, changed by NHLHFABR, makes box 2, transfered by (answer) makes box 3, which mutated by VBZJBIZV makes box 4. Or something.   [My initial impression was that the letters expressed relations between the boxes… they don’t. So I needed to unthink that at some point.]

0:02:46

Each box has 13 segments, and they’re directed (there’s a starting arrow)

0:04:00

But 8 letters in between. so not 1-1 or 2-1 mapping.  [Stil trying to make “letters and lines interact” work]

0:05:03

Are these formula 1 race tracks or something?

0:07:41

Well, if so, I can’t find them.

0:10:42

Totally stumped. No idea. Stopping

0:10:42

Back at this the next day. I guess I’ll try to find sets/loops of 13 things?

0:14:01

Grand prix tracks with 13 turns don’t seem to match.

0:16:37

Since there are 3 sets of letters and 4 sets of dots/lines… it feels like the letters are the transforms between the “map” boxes…. How could that work?  [It’s an interesting idea for a puzzle… the intermediate picture boxes would uniquely define the middle text box… which give a text answer. Worth filing away.]

0:18:10

The title, “Gift Box”, is giving me absolutely nothing.

0:22:44

I really have no idea? Are the letters how far to shift the letters in the 8 letter word in the previous box? That would be weird, but I can’t think of anything else.

0:24:14

What are the halfway points between the top and bottom letters in each place?

0:24:29

RESI… so far so good

0:25:11

RESIDENT. Neat. So the letters don’t have anything to do with the boxes…. instead there are 4 loop boxes, and the word RESIDENT which applies to whatever I figure out about the 2 internal boxes (or all 4 boxes, who knows?)

0:25:57

But at least I’m looking for a place someone (or something) lives.

0:27:01

Two boxes, maybe they make a U and an S, and it’s US RESIDENT? I’ll try AMERICAN  [Not a bad guess, I guess.]

0:27:38

Wrong. But I have 93 guesses left on this set, so no harm done.

0:28:11

Maybe it’s NZ (or the two islands)? I’ll try KIWI. Nope.  [I like this guess even better. NZ has shown up in these Aussie hunts before.]

0:35:34

Mabye I interpolate each of the 13 points the way I did with the letters. Not sure how to do that easily.  [I immediately tried it 1/3, 2/3, as you’d imagine it works. This really is a clever puzzle, I think.]

0:46:30

I’ve done 6 points. It… is going ok. Not sure it’s making anything.

0:55:08

Ok, done. The bottom picture is definitely a tree.. I think.  [That “definitely” lasted a half second. Well done, Eric]

0:55:33

The top picture is more of a pear. Oh, a pear tree resident. Guessing PARTRIDGE.  [That “Oh” should be “OHHHhhh” as in “OHHHhhh, *I* get it!”]