Melbourne University Mathematics and Statistics Society

Home Events Puzzle Hunt 2010 Puzzles Answers Meta - Meta Puzzle
Solution for Meta - Meta Puzzle (Answer = VISITREDPICNICBENCHATGMAIL)

No separate Meta Puzzle was presented to solvers this year even though the rules explicitly states that "a special 'meta' puzzle will be released on Day 5". This was because Puzzle 5.2 doubled as both a regular puzzle and the meta puzzle (as alluded to by its answer, METALLICA)!

In Recapitulation, each set contained words with a common property that allowed a letter (or letters) to be extracted (see 5.2 Recapitulation for details). Each of the 24 puzzle answers can be assigned to one of these property sets and a letter extracted in the same order as for Puzzle 5.2. In addition, the story text subtlety alludes to each puzzle's matching property:

No. Property Puzzle Puzzle answer Letter(s)
1 Contains a 5-letter palindromic substring; take central letter
(...he struggles to put on the cravat, first back-to-front, then tweaking it to achieve optimal symmetry) 		3.3 FOREVER V
2 Synonyms of "start"; take leading letter
(...the first half-hour of 220-213: Trees and Forests. You make your choice: mysterious puzzle first, class later) 		1.1 INTRODUCTION I
3 Colour names with an extra letter; take the extra letter
(...your face first flushes tomato-red...pickle-green...onion-white) 		5.5 SCREAM S
4 Technology companies with one letter changed; take the changed letter
(...or some other evil high-tech mega-corporation) 		2.5 CUSCO I
5 Contains two double letters; take the doubled letters
(...with enough bling to make your eyes see double) 		4.3 MUTTABURRA TR
6 Comprised almost entirely of doubled up letters; take the single unpaired letter
(...surrounded by well-dressed couples going for a stroll, you start to feel like the odd one out) 		3.5 BATTLELAB E
7 All letters except one occur on single keyboard row; take the different rowed letter
(...a speed comparable to the fingers of a Hansard typist) 		4.4 PRIDE D
8 Contains a silent letter; take the silent letter
(...you sit down to enjoy your meal in silence) 		1.3 PSYCHO P
9 Cryptic representations; take the indicated letter
(...by the cryptic instruction of judge Matt Preston) 		5.1 MIDAIR I
10 Starcraft actions; take the in-game hotkey
(...then to the quizzes and games section for a bit of strategy) 		2.2 MEDIC C
11 Curtailments form new words; take the last letters
(...while lopping the ends off stems of celery) 		4.1 BITTERN N
12 Three letters removed from US state name; take the first letters of the removed trigrams
(How about some cuisine from the States)) 		3.4 LOUISA I
13 Names of popes; take the number of popes and convert alphanumerically (not including anti-popes)
(...you cannot wholly see (Holy See) the point of them) 		1.5 SYLVESTER C
14 Contains 3-4 regularly spaced Is and Os; convert from binary to alphabetic character
(With extreme trepidation and reluctance, you count to two) 		4.2 DOMINO B
15 Contains a consecutive triple letter; take the tripled letter
(...this mid-semester looks at least three times as hard...) 		2.1 EEE PC E
16 Starts with a Greek letter substring; take the following letter
(Matt Preston is in Stalactites Greek Restaurant) 		5.3 PINEAPPLE N
17 Starts and ends in same letter; take this letter
(And so the week ends just like it began) 		5.4 CONCENTRIC C
18 Synonyms of "size" or "length"; convert the length of each string alphanumerically
(...the sheer ingenuity and unfathomable magnitude of your little scheme) 		2.3 DIAMETER H
19 Beheadments of words; take the beheaded letters
(Still standing with the door all but appended to the front of your nose) 		3.2 TROPHY A
20 Reversals of definitions of 2-letter terms
(...you keep clicking back...Oh, no!, GG no RE!, this is so BS!. ...everything seems to come packaged in little more than two letters) 		1.2 MARGARET TG
21 Contains surname of a Maxim Hot 100 model; take the list placement of each model and convert alphanumerically
(...it is a certain gentlemen's magazine, featuring pictures of semi-naked women) 		3.1 ALBATROSS M
22 Contains a single letter that is repeated 4 times; take that letter
(For at least the fourth time today) 		1.4 SAGARMATHA A
23 Begins with a phonetic letter sound
(And with that surprisingly well-enunciated proclamation) 		4.5 EYELASHES I
24 Texas hold'em poker hand terms; take the sum of the card values and convert alphanumerically
(...only annoying pop-up ads for poker websites...) 		2.4 HIJACK L

This spells the phrase VISIT REDPICNICBENCH AT GMAIL. Logging in to redpicnicbench@gmail.com using the password METALLICA provides access to an email with instructions that directs solvers around the Melbourne University campus in order to locate the SCRT MSG's final burial place. For a copy of these email instructions, click here.