It wasn't the best start to Jordan and Inna Morton's new business, The Canberra Hunt. They'd just handed out the clues for their very first treasure hunt for a Saturday and it was absolutely pouring with rain.
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They weren't sure anyone would be keen to venture outdoors in the bad weather so Inna suggested they go back to where the treasure was placed and double check on it. The couple drove to the treasure site, hopped out and checked it was okay.
"But by the time I started the car [to leave], a lady had come around with her son and they found it which was very rewarding to see," Jordan says.
Jordan Morton is a Canberra boy who came up with the idea of The Canberra Hunt to showcase the city and its surrounds. He works as a landscaper and groundsman, which gets him outdoors, and he has a particular interest in exploring the city.
"My wife and I also love to travel around the local region and enjoy what Canberra has to offer and the surrounding area," he says. "We were in Kosciusko on her birthday and we thought what if we could draw people out with an age old game. We thought that would be a good idea."
They came up with treasure hunt kits, each with a map, a character card and set of clues. "You have a riddle that you have to solve and each riddle narrows it down closer and closer to where the treasure will be," he says.
There are 52 hunts, one every weekend and you can book yourself in week by week or pay for a year long subscription. Some of the hunts will take you out into the country but you'll get a notification if the treasure is an hour's drive or more away. The kits can be collected every Friday evening at Guild, the board games restaurant in Civic, and the hunt itself starts from 7am on Saturday.
There are some rules to keep things respectful (no trespassing, no illegal parking, the treasure is always visible to the naked eye) and the Mortons want people to discover little gems in the city that they might have been walking or driving past for years.
And Jordan says he's already getting a whole lot of joy out of the hunt himself. "The fact that grandma, mum and son could get out there, find a treasure, still have a good day, just to see their faces light up with happiness.. and there's a bit of satisfaction there to solve a puzzle," he says.
See canberrahunt.com
