Kākācon #3 · New Zealand · 2021

Kākācon 2021 Sticker Badge Challenge

First sticker-backed Kākācon puzzle trail

The organizer walkthrough for Kākācon 2021 documents the first Kākācon badge challenge, with the entry point printed on the backing paper of a Pepper Raccoon-designed sticker.

Kākācon New Zealand Wellington Sticker Badge Badge Challenge Puzzle Zealandia Oceania

EventKākācon #3

SeriesKākācon

LocationZealandia, Wellington

CountryNew Zealand

People

Authors & Credits

2021 sticker designer

Pepper Raccoon

The official Kākācon art page credits Pepper Raccoon as designer of the Kākācon #3 2021 sticker used as the badge-challenge entry artifact.

Source

Kākācon runner and badge-challenge walkthrough author

Karit

Karit published the 2021 Kākācon badge challenge walkthrough and is identified on the Kākācon site as the runner/contact for the event.

Source

Why It Mattered

It adds a small New Zealand hallway-con badge-challenge lineage where the badge artifact is a printed sticker and puzzle trail rather than an electronic board.

Hardware

The source trail proves a physical sticker with printed backing-paper challenge material. It does not document an electronic PCB, microcontroller, battery, display, radio, NFC, or firmware.

Software & Apps

The challenge path used web pages, source-code hints, CyberChef-style transformations, audio/Morse clues, image EXIF data, and substitution-cipher solving, but no badge firmware is documented.

Lore

Kākācon is a Kawaiicon-adjacent Wellington hallway-con walk at Zealandia. The 2021 challenge began from the sticker artifact and led solvers through bird-themed web and media clues.

Lifecycle

Add-ons & Upgrades

printed puzzle surface source-backed

Sticker backing-paper entry point

The 2021 walkthrough says the badge challenge started from text printed on the back of the Kākācon sticker.

Compatibility: Kākācon 2021 Sticker Badge Challenge

Source

web puzzle path source-backed

Bird-media puzzle trail

The 2021 challenge used web pages, source comments, dawn-chorus audio, image EXIF data, and substitution solving after the sticker entry point.

Compatibility: Kākācon 2021 Sticker Badge Challenge

Source

Operational history

Issues & Camp Impact

challenge-archive caveat note

The walkthrough documents the solved path, but this pass does not preserve all original challenge pages, audio, images, or server state.

The catalogue summarizes the puzzle structure while avoiding claims that the live challenge infrastructure remains complete.

Confidence: organizer walkthrough
Status: partial public reconstruction
Timeframe: 2021 badge challenge pass
Source note: 2021 Kākācon badge challenge walkthrough.

missing rights-cleared image note

No Kākācon 2021 sticker image is published because the recovered page images have not been paired with explicit reuse rights, attribution, and processing notes.

The record remains source-backed and image-free rather than copying blog or art-page images without complete provenance.

Confidence: local project policy
Status: needs licensed original replacement
Timeframe: current catalogue build
Source note: badge.gallery image policy, Kākācon art page, and 2021 walkthrough.

sticker-badge classification note