The Hunt - 2007

New Blog for Volvo The Hunt 2007

2007-04-24T21:42:00.000-07:00

For this year's coverage a new blog is set up below.

http://prometheusdigital.com/potc3/

The Hunt - 2007

2007-03-19T23:54:00.000-07:00

Nothing New?

2006-09-09T00:03:00.000-07:00

Been kinda dead here lately, Nothing new to report except for whispers of another volvo puzzle
contest for next year. :)

If there's a large enough response I may open another blog dedicated to other online contests &
will post work-arounds, secrets etc.
I have been messing with other online contests & nothing really all that interesting out there yet.
If you find something let me know!

Mini Update

2006-08-13T15:25:00.000-07:00

Back when people wanted to know about the missing piece in the UK/US puzzle, Turns out it was just a bug in the game.
&
The trees in the dawn scene/Tim Ellis video commercial, were brought in by Volvo just for that piece of film. The real site has NO trees.

Memoirs From DecipherGuy (James Hutz)

2006-08-11T16:02:00.000-07:00

I (James Hutz) won the first event which was a series of clues leading you through multiple challenges in the little Bahamian town of New Plymouth in Green Turtle Cay.

I won by more than 10 minutes in a 1 hour event. Dave was second.
This event eliminated Spain, Jenny(from US) , and England

2nd. Round: After a two hour boat ride, and 1 ½ hours in the sun waiting for media, we played a island form of concentration.
35 Conk shells with 15 pairs of symbols under them in the sand.
Object: Pick up shells, find two symbols that match.
Twist: After finding the match, Put the shells back with nothing under them…

Therefore: Always 35 shells in the game…very hard, especially for an old guy
It took over two hours, with two 30 minute distractions that made you forget everything.
I lost in a tie-breaker questions, and was eliminated.

3rd round: three containers 15, 10, 4.. 15 is full of water at start, others empty.
Game: Fastest two to leave exactly 13 in large container.

Answer: pour 15 > 10, leaving 5

pour 10> 4, then 4> 15 ..now 9 in 15

pour 10> 4 , then 4> 15 .. now 13 in 15.

Austria was eliminated.

Finals, next day, go to BIG sailboat in Little Harbor then down into the hold of the sailboat, there was a big map torn into about 30-40 pieces, and with tape (scotch tape) , Tape it back together, ..jump in a little boat, and row to shore. First ashore wins.

Dave won the concentration game, won the water pour by 25 seconds, and was ashore 10 minutes before Japan.

**Volvo Hunt site is updated with a slideshow of images from the final leg.**
**Another video has surfaced from the hunt, Here

"Official" News Release of the Winner

2006-08-10T15:54:00.000-07:00

Volvo's blog has been updated today with news of the winner.
Turns out every finalist gets a car & the webcast will begin
August 25th.

Read more here.

The Final Leg

2006-08-08T14:19:00.000-07:00

The finalists were eliminated in two sessions on Tues Aug. 8th
The first session eliminates 3 people, then the afternoon/evening session eliminates 2 people.
Then the 2 people who are left will do a final puzzle on Wed Aug. 9th
to determine who wins the car.

The finalists fly home on Thurs. Then on Fri they announce the winners.

{From what i understand the web cast will be shown on Aug.27th (not confirmed)}

** The finalists took a helicopter ride to New Plymouth in Green Turtle Cay,
and did a treasure trail there. **

The location of the car and the final challenge was in Little Harbour, Abaco, Bahamas.

The first part of the final leg was a treasure trail in New Plymouth on Green Turtle Cay, amazing race style hunt, with lots of hidden clues and things to do . Decipher Guy (aka Jim Hutz) won by a wide margin. The Spanish and UK finalists as well as the lady from Georgia were eliminated in this leg.

The next part was a concentration game, David Hutz (son of Decipher Guy) and the lady from Austria were tied for first, and Jim Hutz and the Japanese finalist were tied for third. They had a playoff question for the third place finishers, and the Japanese finalist won. Jim Hutz was eliminated.

The third challenge was the classic bucket puzzle similar to what was shown in Die Hard 3.
You have two buckets A and B, and you have use those two to measure an amount into bucket C. The Austrian finalist was eliminated.

The final leg was between the Japanese contestant and Dave Hutz. They had to get onto a sailboat in Little Harbour and then put together pieces of a map, and then return to shore. The first person to shore won the car. Dave Hutz won by a wide margin.

Then everyone got to watch the car taken out of the ground. It took a couple of hours. But there was no digging or hunting to find the car itself.

Here's some videos of the car being removed from the ground.
Video1
Low bandwidth video but shows more
Video2

And here's some pics of the surrounding area of the location of the car during the hunt.

Congratulations David Hutz for winning the car!

Solutions

2006-07-18T20:04:00.000-07:00

Well its been confirmed the solutions I've posted are correct (JP & US & UK) so far.

http://thehunt.volvocars.net/jp/2558N7713W
36508829

http://thehunt.volvocars.net/us/2558N7713W
43642476

http://thehunt.volvocars.net/uk/2558N7713W
38899036

http://thehunt.volvocars.net/at/2558N7713W
83608993

http://thehunt.volvocars.net/es/2558N7713W
83608993

Winners Circle

2006-07-16T12:59:00.000-07:00

Winners List:

UNITED STATES
David Hutz, Herndon, VA
James Hutz, Carefree, AZ
Jenny Buckalew, Newnan, GA

UNITED KINGDOM
Karl Lloyd, Surrey

JAPAN
Akihiro Horibe, Yokohama

SPAIN
José Luis D. M., Valladolid

AUSTRIA
Susanne Kalintsch, Trieben

Aftermath

2006-07-13T16:09:00.000-07:00

US DECODED NUMBERS

UK DECODED NUMBERS

JP DECODED NUMBERS

"Somewhere" Island

2006-07-12T15:09:00.000-07:00

US
INSIDE BOX =43618275
OUTSIDE LID=46446372
SOLUTION
43642476
----------------
JP
INSIDE BOX =15487362
OUTSIDE LID=38092586
SOLUTION
36508829
----------------
UK
INSIDE BOX =13846257
OUTSIDE LID=38690893
SOLUTION
38899036
----------------
SPAIN
INSIDE BOX =81364572
OUTSIDE LID=38690893
SOLUTION
83608993
----------------
AUSTRIA
INSIDE BOX =81364572
OUTSIDE LID=38690893
SOLUTION
83608993
---------------
The "How To Key" is basically taking the symbols & numbers
from the lid and the box and using the inside box as your identifier
for the sequence on the lid numbers. IE;
-------------
US Example

INSIDE BOX =43618275 <-decode symbols to get those #'s)
OUTSIDE LID=46446372<-same method as above)
SOLUTION 43642476
Start with #1 whats below it? (4),
Next is #2 whats below that? (3),
Just count 1-8 and taking note of what's underneath it to form the solution.

Game Urls & Reg Codes

2006-07-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

Urls:
http://thehunt.volvocars.net/us/
http://thehunt.volvocars.net/uk/
http://thehunt.volvocars.net/jp/
http://thehunt.volvocars.net/es/
http://thehunt.volvocars.net/at/

All Reg Codes:
97123P12,
97125Q21,
97128R23,
97130S32,
97132T46,
1001,
1002,
1003,
1004,
1005,
1006,
1007,
1008,
1009,
1010,
S1L73R, blackpearl, 27072006

Island Names & Locations

2006-06-30T17:24:00.000-07:00