[SCP08] SCP Planning Thread

By **Auroa**. 08/05/08, 02:17 pm

Yeah I'm pretty sure we're using vans, its looking to be our best option
You mean get a ride in the van? Cause of course ^^

Well its initially a picnic right? Hopefully having good weather we'll be in a park with all kinds of games and activities planned, but town too is another option as well =3
I'm gonna start a thread where everyone can suggest things we could possibly do... theres already a semi-big list...

By **jpwise**. 08/05/08, 02:33 pm

lol, yeah, everythings slowly falling into place (quicker than i expected actually).

Vans are looking to be the best option. Price per head still to be determined, but with any luck it won't be too much, although petrol and whatever the hall costs will factor into it.

Good weather - outside, bad weather - inside (or indoors somewhere else). Everyone will at least be able to get together and have some fun anyway.

So, just to clarify is everyone pretty well settled on weekend of the 30th-August? No raindate since the theory is there'll be a hall etc if it rains? I'd be keen to come down, and can drive one of the vans if required, so it's just the question of once things finalise and I try to book leave and planes.

By **Auroa**. 08/05/08, 02:36 pm

thats cause we are planning so early, and have lots of help from awesome people =3

Yeah be expected for prices to be up to $100 but most likely/hopefully not that much though thats gonna be the max...

Yeap as long as we get a hall, I'm fine for no rain date hehehe, I do not want this canceled ><'
so gota look into these halls.
when do you hope to book for your plane etc jp? cause I know theres at least 3 others that are gonna look into doing that as well...
and I wanna try and get some sure answers (yes we have a hall etc etc) before everyone starts booking and such...

By **jpwise**. 08/05/08, 02:45 pm

I'm moderately open on when to book it, so basically i'll be trying to keep an eye on airnz grabaseat fares etc and see if i can get a cheap deal like i did for armageddon. Where're the other 3 flying from, Wellington or elsewhere?

Worst case scenario if no decent fares crop up i know pacific blue usually have reasonable fares on an ongoing basis, just the grabaseat fares beat them by a bit if you can get them.

By Nazgul. 08/05/08, 02:52 pm

aw, thanks for the offer, aura! I really appreciate it! hm.. now I just need to find out who else is coming for the ride =]

heehee I feel bad for not contributing much, so here's a link for the hall price. I hope it's right @_@
http://www.timaru.govt.nz/index.asp?sidenav=servnav.html&mainpage=fees_charges/community/pleasantpt.html

Hope that helps! =D

By Nazgul. 08/05/08, 02:53 pm

holy ++ I didn't realise that that rate is hourly! lol sorry

By **jpwise**. 08/05/08, 03:10 pm

youch. although the page further up with the other venues gives a bit of a better range of the options (their site sucks at making useful links). hopefully there are others aswell the council doesn't list that are cheaper.. or a cheaper rate for taking something for the weekend.
http://www.timaru.govt.nz/index.asp?sidenav=servnav.html&mainpage=fees_charges/community/hallhire.html

By **Auroa**. 08/05/08, 03:12 pm

Yeah, I think I recall he who shall not be named whose hired halls before for stuff (and stayed the night in them) said that school ones are really expensive but you can find cheaper ones like ones they use for scouts and stuff...
though thats in chch... dunno about Timaru.
*hunts*

By Willuknight. 08/05/08, 03:40 pm

I've emailed the council and local CAB for information and contract information for hireable halls in the area. I'll take care of contacting them and A) seeing who can meet our requirements and b) what the prices are.

One thing with halls is that no council owned venues (and a lot of other public halls) will not do overnight hiring, usually because it's set out in their lease/licence agreeements.

How many fully licenced drivers are there?

Me
JP
Serephik

By **seraphik**. 08/05/08, 03:46 pm

i'm pretty sure i will be by the picnic.

By **Auroa**. 08/05/08, 04:07 pm

heh, not me, not yet anyway, but I know a couple... though still gota know if they're coming or not yet.

By **jpwise**. 09/05/08, 03:56 am

heh, all these non-full license people! course, i can't blame them, sucks that the licenses expire now.

Anyways, bearing in mind everythings still in the planning stages, what time are we planning to get the ball rolling and leave ChCh? I'm asking so I can look a bit more closely at the airfares etc. If I can plan it I'll fly in on the Saturday morning and then jump in the van down (I'd be keen to go in the van rather than fly direct to timaru - after all the trips half the fun :)) Then on Sunday when we're back jump on the plane, then I can avoid taking leave at work. How early in the morning, and is everyone meeting up centrally or being collected from around Chch along the way? Also depending on how much gear everyone has a luggage trailer might be required aswell (altho if it grows to two vans one trailer might still be enough).

I'd also be keen to look at the van bookings being done as one booking to see if they'll give more of a discount, even if they're departing separate cities.

Seraphik: the van you were in up from Dunedin for Armageddon, how crowded was it? Was it completely full, or were there a few empty seats to spread out? Essentially should a 12seat van be fully occupied, or aim for a couple of empty seats so people don't get too crowded/uncomfortable.

By IcyRose. 09/05/08, 05:46 am

I can actually answer that question since I was also in said van.

Our 12-seater van as completely full and as a result we had to be creative on where to store our luggage. It would be ideal to not have the van filled up with people just for the sake of comfortable room space, especially if we're storing any large cosplay props anywhere.

So a couple of empty seats would be good. Or you can hire one of those trailer things that store luggage which would clear up most of the problem.

By **Auroa**. 09/05/08, 06:13 am

Lol, well... I've been waiting for my question to be answered or discussed as to what time we want the picnic, but everyone keeps skipping it. LOL.

I'd say if we arrive in Timaru around 11... we could make it early but the Dunedin crew has 3 hours to travel... although then again we could go there early and set things up...
So whatever time we decide, we leave chch 2 hours... maybe 2 1/2 before hand leave some time to maybe stop for photos, etc iunno, I'm still keen for that but yeah.
I'd say meet 15-30 minutes before leaving to get everything sorted, time for anyone leaving late.
Whoa numbers... so um... say we arrive in Timaru at 11
that means:
~ meet 8-8.15
~ Leave Chch = 8.30
~ Arrive Timaru = 10.30-11 (depending if we make some stops.)

As for leaving on Sunday, leave at either 4-5pm?
no reason as to why I put that... any other times? Do we want to worry/have dinner in Timaru again or wait till we get back or have it on the way driving home???

Next... for booking the hall - I think seraphik found a possible one (which I think... I've been to before) um its pretty cheap, and has emailed them. But um, when we go to book it... we have to say the times we're having it right? So what times do we want it oO ... its gonna be kinda annoying cause really we'd probably want it say from 5pm onwards... since we'll be outside for the picnic. But then if it happens to be raining that day... ><' ... same for on Sunday. We could spend the day outside etc ... which means we save on the money.
But yeah if it rains... gah @_@' the problems of booking in advance...

btw: nazgul549, thanks, its okay, like jp said, that link you provided us, did have a list of some good halls to check out - so thankie very muchly =3 you to Will for research/contacting.

Oh, and I'd think it would be much better if we all meet at a central place (lol the square AGAIN =P) since it'll save on time/petrol, we'll have a better idea of fitting luggage etc since it'll be all in front of us, and also for the drivers sake =P
yeah since it is a two day picnic there'll be quite a lot of luggage I'd think oO' + equpiment, foods etc...

By **jpwise**. 09/05/08, 06:56 am

IcyRose: if the luggage wasn't squeezed in would it be comfortable enough with 12 people? (sorry, i don't travel in vans very often, so not sure quite how tight they squeeze in).

That Rhodes place has the luggage trailers for $20/day, but I also notice that some of their vans have luggage cages (?roof?) aswell, so depending what we end up with the trailer might be overkill. Of course, depends on what you guys get in Dunedin aswell, and we'd probably have to get a tarpaulin or two and rope if using the luggage cage to stop stuff getting wet/falling off.
Edit: by the sounds of things that weekend special is just the standard van, no cage, so unless we luck out and they have to upgrade we should probably plan on at least one trailer.

Hrm, ok, yeah, I was figuring somewhere around 9ish, so 8.30 is about right. I'll try to find a flight that arrives early AM and leaves late PM on the Sunday.

Aura/Seraphik: yeah, the arrival time will be up in the air if it rains. Once you find out if it's a fixed price or hourly, I wonder if they have a setup/planning rate like some of the ones on the timaru council site that we could maybe use to get the extra few hours at a cheaper price (assuming it's hourly).

By IcyRose. 09/05/08, 08:13 am

Having just 12 people in the one van and no crushed luggage everywhere would have been pretty comfortable. The thing I need to point out with the 12-seater was that the 3 seats at the back of the van took the space of where the boot storage would be. Hence why we had to be creative with luggage storage as with the exception of under seats there was no real space for luggage.

By **jpwise**. 09/05/08, 08:38 am

OK, Thanks for that. Guess that means allow for at least one luggage trailer per group, although depending on how big they are if the ChCh group ends up requiring 2 vans they might be able to get away with just one trailer. At $20/day it's only an extra $3.35 each with 12 people which isn't too bad. Less if it's split between two vans.

Edit: Ok, sounds like the luggage trailers are quite large. 7' x 4' and 8' x 4' you get whichever ones available, but it equates to 2.1 / 2.4m long by 1.2m wide, so um, yeah, plenty of space.

By Willuknight. 09/05/08, 10:13 am

Can we not meet at the square? Getting parking is a nightmare, and most people will be being dropped off, because their will be luggage and stuff to carry. A better meeting point would be in a carpark somewhere, like on top of the riccarton mall carpark opposite the movie theater or something.

By **Auroa**. 09/05/08, 01:22 pm

true, eh as long as its somewhere central to everyone, any place will be fine.

By **jpwise**. 10/05/08, 05:32 am

Continuing that theme, a mall/supermarket carpark somewhere wouldn't be a bad idea. Last minute snack purchases, toilet stops, etc.

Also anyone familiar with the trip got ideas for rest stops/photo shoots? I know someone mentioned it earlier, but since I don't know the South Island at all I can't really suggest anywhere apart from places on the map. ie: Ashburton is apparently about half way between ChCh & Timaru, anything of interest to warrant stopping, or interesting landmarks/parks/parts of town for photos? Assuming it's not raining of course.

By **seraphik**. 10/05/08, 05:49 am

the hall i was looking at is probably out, since it was on the council website and will said that all of the ones there don't do overnight things.

are there any scout halls in timaru?

By Bridget. 10/05/08, 06:51 am

Wow this all sounds so good, is there anything i can do to help??

By Willuknight. 10/05/08, 07:06 am

seraphik> thats going just on what Christchurch and Invercargill city councils say, but im pretty sure timaru will be the same sad

.

I've emailed the scout group in timaru, waiting for a response.

By **jpwise**. 10/05/08, 07:15 am

Is it worth contacting them to confirm they use the same rules?

Also, google-fu to the rescue, a list of halls, and similar in the Timaru area.
http://www.localmoa.co.nz/search/halls/near/timaru
http://www.finda.co.nz/business/ac/timaru-canterbury/halls/

There's two pages on each and quite a few double ups, plus Church halls, but also mention at least two scout halls - one in Pleasant Point, the other in Geraldine. There's also quite a few other halls that aren't listed on the Timaru council site.

Anyway, I can't do too much digging on them at the moment since I've gotta drive to Palmerston North for a Birthday party, but might be able to do some more digging when I get back.

Jp.

By **seraphik**. 10/05/08, 07:21 am

scout halls should be able to do overnight, because i remember going to an overnight LAN in one in dunedin... i'll look into it.

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