Melbourne Anime Festival (and reviews useful for any Melbourne con.)

By Highlander. 15/06/12, 11:51 am

So like a few CNZers are going to take a break, and hop over to MAF in August. More people should join us.

By Highlander. 27/08/12, 12:50 pm

Here are my photos and videos

SkyDrive

The videos are also on Youtube

www.youtube.com/user/scotynz

Reviews and travel guide to follow.

By Paul. 27/08/12, 01:30 pm

I was expecting Manifset to be small and not all that exciting but was proven otherwise. It was good fun and there were a high number of cosplayers there.

Here are my photos (Separated by day):

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151096071905902.463217.522255901&type=1&l=6a5c0cedc3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151098249350902.463529.522255901&type=1&l=547788b082

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151100246280902.463781.522255901&type=1&l=94ad66ea09

By TinTango. 29/08/12, 12:30 am

Love the Photos, looks like it was a lot of fun!
Oh man, but the video footage of the Gangnam Style Flashmob-

makes me want to do this for Auckgeddon!!!https://youtu.be/Ew3_ZRfxcPM

By Paul. 29/08/12, 12:01 pm

^ Dude its already happening at Auckland, you should join: https://www.facebook.com/events/447699321919110/

By Highlander. 22/09/12, 03:07 pm

So a belated review:

Air travel. Even if you see cheap offers expect to pay more to travel to Melbourne. Allow over $400. With E-Passports getting into and out of Australia is easy. Melbourne airport is large, but just follow the signs. If you are taking weapon like props it may get a bit harder? If you take real steal or other weapons, fake guns, etc., then know that Victoria is the toughest state on weapons, and you better leave them at home. If in doubt ask Australia Customs and Victoria Police before leaving.

Transport There is the skybus which costs about $20 each way from the airport to the CBD and back again. From there they offer a free shuttle to take you to 100 motel/hotels in the city. There are trains running some places, trams and buses. We elected to take the tram. They are slightly noisy, relatively slow, and can get packed. But there is one every 10 minutes, and they stop near the venue, plus they look cool. You can buy cards for all public transport at Flinders station, or certain other places.

I'm not sure how large these posts can be so I will split the review into more posts.

By Highlander. 22/09/12, 03:10 pm

Accommodation We mostly stayed in the inner city. One stayed with family. But beware of where family live, and travel times to the venue. One girl I met spent two hours travelling to the con, and two hours home again. Travel to the venue was like 40 minutes or so from the CBD. One of us got a luxury hotel room via choosing a random wotif deal. My Auntie says she always uses Wotif to get cheap deals in the CBD and always gets luxury hotels. Dianna and I stayed in the City Square Motel. It's a hole in the wall motel, being six stories high, but not very wide. It has cheap internet (by NZ standards) but it was unreliable by the sixth floor. A laundry at $3 a wash. A very helpful desk service, and after hours entry by keypad. It was however $90 a night for a single room. Perfectly serviceable, but old room. New bathroom, new TV, a very old noisy air con/heater fitted in a hole in the external wall, a view of the neighbouring air con over a narrow alleyway, a kettle and toaster, tea, cup, and two slices of bread a day for breakfast, with two spreads, microwave, but no large plates/bowls. Filthy double windows that wouldn't close, or open. It was noisy every day and night with construction noise, the bustle of the city, and a night club at one point. But then it was the same at the luxury motel apparently. And Dianna's room was $10 a night extra, but had a quieter aircon and better windows.

By Highlander. 22/09/12, 03:25 pm

Melbourne CBD. It is a largeish area full of high-rises dotted with low and medium rise buildings in between, new and old, with the Yarra river on the south side, and some low rolling hillocks. It has some attempts at art, either on the side of buildings or at random places. It seems to be always awake and noisy. It is easy to walk around, I took about ten minutes to get anywhere. Every second street running east west is a "little" street, being little more than large one way alleyways. (So like longdon st, then little Longdon St.) Most people seem to Jay walk these, but you do have to watch for traffic. (Swanson Walk is mostly traffic free, tram only.) There are food shops everywhere, with every third shop up Swanson Walk being a restaurant, mostly Asian. A good variety, and reasonably priced, including Taiwanese, Hong Hong Deserts, Afgahn, Indonesian, Malay, Indian vegetarian, Japanese conveyer style, etc. Then there is the Chinese District, which is a side street of chinese shops/restaurants. Many shops like optus, 7-11 and subway are repeated every few blocks. There are small supermarkets, 7-11's and medium sized fabric shops, and plenty of malls. But they are not spread out 1 storey malls taking up whole blocks. There are mall entrances in the middle or corners of a block, and then a mall may rise both four stories up, and two stories underground. It may simply extend through the middle of a block, or may be a maze. Where they are on hills you have to figure out what level leads out on any side. We found Wmart which is a huge version of Kmart, but underground, next to an underground supermarket. The greek district has kinda dispersed a bit over the years, with few greek restaurants amongst other shops, even more asian restaurants. It does include many sites to visit, from the gardens over the Yarra river to the museum on the north side, and many others. Although it is out of the CBD the Italian Distric is a row of 120 Italian restaurants, and well worth visiting. Various tours of the CBD are avaiable. Worth the visit if they are not all packed up for a con is Moe Mall. There is also an anime store, One Stop Anime.

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