Mazed and confused

The Nelson Mail

Mazes are a-mazing and have captured a lot of interest over the centuries. Philippa Foes-Lamb talks to Stephen Johnston of the Stoneridge Cafe in Redwood Valley about the maze there and looks at the background of these fascinating puzzles.

Mazes have fascinated people for many centuries and are still very popular.

If you've always wanted to have a go at solving a maze but haven't known where to find one, now is your chance - at the Stoneridge Cafe in Malling Rd, Redwood Valley.

Stephen Johnston and Jude Staniland have created the perfect destination for family outings at their cafe. One of the main attractions is the hedge maze, which is the only one of its type in the Nelson region.

Asked how the maze came about, Stephen said, "We were growing apples and things weren't looking good - prices were going down and costs were going up and we knew something had to change.

"One evening, Jude's brother Robert Staniland came round and said that he and Richard Ray had been talking about Nelson not having a hedge maze.

"We thought it was a great idea and things just roller-coasted from there. I've always loved old and classical things and this is another reason why the maze idea appealed."

The maze was planted just before Christmas, eight years ago. "I really wanted to plant a soft, velvety variety of cypress but was told they wouldn't grow well here. We planted 1030 leyland cypress, Cupressus leylandii instead and they have grown really well.

"The soil here is not great - we have big ridges of iron pan running through our property which makes digging a bit of a nightmare. The soil also becomes very sludgy in winter and like concrete blocks in summer.

"We worked the soil several times with bulldozers before we planted the hedge. Even though it was planted in summer, all of the plants survived, which is great."

The hedge is trimmed about three times a year, with a petrol-powered hedge trimmer. "I'd love to be able to clip it with hedge shears, but that would take forever," Stephen said.

"The cafe has been open for seven weeks and the maze is proving to be really popular, which is a lovely surprise.

"We had some people who had done the maze at Hampton Court in the UK where the left-hand rule applies - keep your left hand on the "wall" and keep going round until you reach the centre. This rule doesn't work in our maze, which is neat.

"It's not too hard - just hard enough. Some people just stroll to the middle whilst others come back to try again because they didn't reach the middle the first time.

"The one thing we ask is that people respect the maze. It has taken a lot of hard work to get it looking the way it does so it's important that people don't try to push through the hedges or climb over or under them. The maze has already been damaged, which is sad - we don't want to have to close it.

"Luckily, there is a marvellous view of the maze from the upper verandah of the cafe. If you feel you are getting lost or are not sure where to go next, call out and someone is sure to help you.

"We are so grateful to Robert for his support. He's been wonderful, he's helped me believe in myself and has brought out things in me I didn't know were there," Stephen said.

Mazes have been around for a very long time, perhaps as far back as Neolithic times. The earliest known mazes were architectural monuments in Egypt and Crete about 4000 years ago.

There has long been confusion about the words "maze" and "labyrinth". In fact, they have similar meanings. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines a maze as "a network of paths and hedges designed as a puzzle for those who try to penetrate it", and a labyrinth as "a complicated irregular network of passages or paths etc; a maze".

It seems many ancient mazes were called labyrinths, such as the architectural mazes - the Egyptian Labyrinth and the labyrinth at the Minoan palace at Knossos on Crete, both of which were built about the 19th century BC. These were buildings with many interconnecting staircases, courtyards and corridors, most likely intended to keep trespassers out.

The labyrinth at Knossos was huge - a vast interconnected complex that included private courts, staircases and small corridors and 1300 rooms, covering about 1.2ha.

The Romans built beautiful mosaic labyrinths. These were usually used in entrances to villas and houses. Many had walls drawn around them, perhaps to indicate the walls of Troy.

It is thought they were not seen as puzzles but were used as protection from forces of evil or intruders or on a larger scale as part of rituals and processions. This protective influence was a common influence of the labyrinth in many other cultures as well.

The Roman author Pliny wrote that young Roman nobles played a game - riding on horseback through a large labyrinth that was inscribed on the ground. This was seen as a perfect way to test their skills.

In the centuries that followed, mazes appeared in artwork and in architecture - floor inlays in French cathedrals, for example.

Puzzle hedge mazes began to appear in formal gardens throughout Europe and at first they were developed at the wealthiest castles to amuse princes and kings. The maze at Hampton Court Palace, planted by William III who reigned from 1650 until 1702, is one of the finest examples in the UK.

There are several types of mazes, the two most common being unicursal, which has a single path that winds to the centre, and simply connected, which has pathways that never re-connect with each other. Every path you follow either leads to additional paths or dead-ends - it's here the "left-hand rule" is commonly applied.

Mazes aren't limited to hedging plants. There are wooden mazes, such as the one in Teapot Valley, and traditional turf mazes which can be found in the UK.

Turf mazes are unicursal and flat and are made by digging up turf to reveal the ground beneath. There is no evidence to suggest how old turf mazes are but Shakespeare does mention them. They were high maintenance and there was always the danger these mazes would disappear if the grass wasn't cut regularly.

Maize mazes have become very popular in recent years. The first maze of this type was created in the US state of Pennsylvania by Adrian Fisher in 1993, in conjunction with the American Maze Company.

This type of maze is cut into a field of maize and is very popular with farming communities. Known in the US and Canada as "corn mazes", they are started at the beginning of the growing season and are ready for visitors by the beginning of the summer, when the maize is high enough to obscure a visitor's line of sight.

If you are heading to the North Island this summer and would like to try walking through a corn maze, go to www.maze.co.nz for more information.

We are really lucky to have a hedge maze here in the Nelson region. If you've always wanted to walk through a maze, give the one at Stoneridge Cafe a try. It's a great way to have fun with the family on a summer afternoon. For more information phone Stoneridge Cafe on (03) 544 0703.