Getting lost in the Tapnell Farm Maize Maze

The Maize Maze at Tapnell Farm has nine cows which have to be found around the route

It's a funny thing that my memories of school summer holidays on the Isle of Wight always include the sun shining.

I honestly don't remember rainy days in August at all during my childhood. Of course there must have been many, but my mind has decided to remember the evenings spent at Compton Bay rather than the cancelled plans. Or perhaps I just spent most of my time playing on my Sega Mega Drive whilst my mother pleaded with us to get outside.

​Kids eh?

This summer has had the same feeling of non-stop sunshine, along with the occasional heatwave. 

Our trip to the Maize Maze at Tapnell Farm was one such sunny day. 

It's not the first time the Isle of Wight has had a maize maze. There was one in Arreton about 10 years ago but we didn't get to that one.

The Tapnell Maize Maze is next to the farm park. It runs as a separate attraction and costs £5 per person.

We were given two pieces of paper including a map of the maze. We decided to keep this hidden until we reached breaking point, which turned out to be about 20 minutes.

The route is well laid out with multiple possible routes and not too many dead ends. In the middle-ish is a viewing platform but it's tricky to navigate others from up there as the maize all blends together from a distance. ​

The view from the platform in the middle is lovely...but it's not easy to navigate from here

The entrance and exit are next to each other so the idea is that you find the nine different cows which are marked throughout the route.

We got as far as the third cow without consulting the map before concluding that it was challenging enough with directions.

After several shouts of "slow down or we'll lose you!" and "that's not a path!" we decided that we were back at the start. Plan B was to collect the six remaining cows in reverse order. 

With some intense map reading, we found the cows after about an hour, we emerged from the maze and headed for The Cow to sit in the shade and cool off.

My bits of advice for fellow maze explorers:

• Take a drink in with you. Sorry to sound like your mother but it's a big maze and there isn't much shade. 
• Use the map, unless you really like a challenge. I think we would still be wandering round if we hadn't used it. 
• Don't send young children off on their own whilst you sit around staring at your phone and drinking a latte. You'll probably miss your ferry home whilst trying to find them.

The Maize Maze is next to a sunflower field, complete with authentic bees