Hinkler Mindbogglers Twelve Apostles puzzle - 1000 pieces

Description

The Twelve Apostles are one of the best-known stops on the Great Ocean Road: separate limestone stacks that the surf has broken away from the cliffs and that now stand alone in the turquoise water. Hinkler put that photograph on a jigsaw puzzle of 1000 pieces from the Mindbogglers range, the fifteenth series from this brand.

Here you puzzle from the outside in. The cliffs and the stacks give you something to hold on to with their ochre layers, and the white line of surf is a welcome boundary to build along. Then comes the patient work: the sky with its thin streaks of cloud, and the water, where the differences in colour are so small that you start looking at shape rather than colour.

The box measures 35 x 22.5 x 4.5 cm and contains the 1000 pieces. It stands upright on an ordinary bookshelf, which is handy if the puzzle stays out between two evenings.

A puzzle for anyone who likes spending a few evenings on one image, alone at the kitchen table or with someone else. Also a fine present for someone with a soft spot for Australia or for the coast.