. And other PAX peeps. AKA your future friends.
Visit interesting places in and around Melbourne.
Schedule will be posted below.
The two days before PAX: Wed 29/10 and Thurs 30/10. Traditionally runs from 9am to 5pm but
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See something of Melbourne other than the convention center and your hotel. And do it with cool people!
Melbourne's public transit.
You don't need the rest of this info any more.
Voting
Is done. Thanks for your opinion.
Potential stops:
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SUGGEST NEW DESTINATIONS! It's too late for them to make the cut this year, but we can look into them for next year.
ACMI
What: Australian Center for the Moving Image
Price: free entry, some exhibits cost $
Hours: 10-5
Website:
http://www.acmi.net.au
Cupcake Central
Eureka Tower
What: 360 views of Melbourne from the highest viewing platform in the southern hemisphere
Price: $19.50
Hours: 10-10
Website:
http://www.eurekaskydeck.com.au
Additional Notes: the also have
"The Edge" for anyone interested in being in a glass box 300 meters in the air. It costs another $12, cannot be purchased in advance, and likely has a long wait time.
Healesville Sanctuary
What: a zoo. Look at (and pet!) the animals! The have all the fun Australia-only critters here.
Price: $30.80
Hours: 9-5
Website:
http://www.zoo.org.au/healesville
Additional Notes: this one might be difficult to get to. Is there a public transit option? Might only be feasible with a car pool.
High Ropes Park
League of Honest Coffee
Melbourne Aquarium
Melbourne Museum
Melbourne Zoo
National Gallery of Victoria
Old Melbourne Gaol
Parliament of Victoria
Phillip Island
What: a nature preserve with special areas to see koalas, seals, and even a penguin parade
Price:
depends on what you do
Hours: 10-5ish. Penguin parade at sunset
Website:
http://www.penguins.org.au
Additional Notes: this would be a day trip and would require a car pool (no public transit if you stay for the penguin parade). It looks like there are plenty of free places to wander, but any of the special animal areas have fees.
Puffing Billy
Queen Victoria Market
What: a market full of a combination of fresh foods, interesting handmade things, and tourist trap stalls.
Price: free to enter
Hours: Thursday, 8-2
Website:
http://www.qvm.com.au
Additional notes: The meat area near the front is kinda icky and some people may be upset by the stalls selling pelts, koala claw backscratchers, and similar things.
Robot Sushi
Royal Botanic Gardens
Scienceworks
Shrine of Remembrance
What: a war memorial
Price: free, donations welcome
Hours: 10-5 with tours at 11 and 2
Website:
http://www.shrine.org.au/Home
Additional Notes: renovations are affecting wheelchair access to some areas
Street Art Tour
Werribee Zoo
Posts
1. get a tour guide <- done!
2. curate a list of potential places to visit <- in progress
3. everybody votes on where they do and don't want to go (a google form will be made for this)
4. a schedule is posted
5. people show up at the designated place and time and fun is had!
So does anyone want to volunteer for tour guide? It does require you to be there for the full tour, which is usually roughing 9am to 5pm both days, but it can be altered if you have another commitment. I've had a lot of fun leading these tours at the other PAXes and made some great friends and I'm sure you will too.
Anyway, as far as suggestions go, I have the following with my limited Melbourne knowledge -
- Minotaur (not sure how this would work with a crowd going in together and honestly it's only really a store and they may not be open to a bunch of people coming in to browse. Then again, they're probably used to it and may do something cool if contacted/warned)
- Scienceworks (they apparently have a warehouse tour which is all their behind the scenes stuff, needs to be booked?)
- Melbourne Museum?
- Queen Victoria Markets? (Thu only)
- RMIT has some gaming stuff they might be able to do with the group if planned?
- ACMI may have an exhibition on
- Federation Square
- Not open during the day but may be a good end of day thing for Wed - ROBOT SUSHI! http://www.robotsushi.com/
- Cupcake Central - these guys have AMAZING cupcakes. Call back to the Seattle MMT having a trip to Trophy cupcakes
- The League Of Honest Coffee
Hope this helps!
We did eureka tower, most of the cool alley ways in melbourne and healesville sanctuary. So with more planning and less spontaneous wandering this should be awesome.
I know this is coming up fast, so I'm going to sit down this week and make the big fancy list of potential stops.
I usually make a button (badge?) for the MMT folks. Is that something you guys want? Is there a building or structure that's pretty unique/identifiable as "Melbourne" to use on the button? For example, the space needle is always on the Seattle MMT button, and the Zakim bridge on Boston's.
The Shrine of Remembrance
Melbourne Arts Centre spire
Crown Casino Flame Towers (flame on every hour)
Federation Square / ACMI
Melbourne Zoo
Melbourne Aquarium
Just a few off the top of my head
(That said though, never heard of the Zakim bridge despite several Boston's... >.>)
List of events that are on (and will be updated) -
http://www.thatsmelbourne.com.au/Whatson/Pages/SearchResults.aspx?scope=Whatson&TMFromDate=2014-10-28&TMToDate=2014-10-29
Could do Degraves etc lanes for coffee / lunches. Graffiti at night (there is an official street art tour but it's $69). The historic laneways tour is great. There is a boardgame night in the CBD that we could take people to meet other PAX folk at?
Anyway happy to help out as long as we wander past decent coffee like seven seeds or such :P
Thanks for volunteering @Jazzy! I'll be messaging you and @Squire_Pug soon to coordinate, make the final schedule, etc.
I'll leave this up for about a week and then we can work on that schedule thing.
https://pinnypals.com/pals/flashe
I won't be available from around 7pm Thursday night at this stage due to Omeganaut meet up thing I have to be at.
And then, on Wednesday night, after 5pm, you could come to a great charity trivia night!
https://www.facebook.com/CPTAus
http://www.trybooking.com/Booking/BookingEventSummary.aspx?eid=90846
I'll also put in a vote for a street art tour on the Thursday. I'm an out-of-towner, and will be sorting out the aforementioned trivia night on the Wednesday, but the street art in Melbourne is excellent. :biggrin:
https://pinnypals.com/pals/flashe
Wednesday:
9:00 meetup- Flinders St Station, under the clocks
9:30 travel time
10:00 league of honest coffee
11:00 travel time
11:30 Melbourne zoo
1:00 lunch/travel
3:00 scienceworks
Thursday
9:00 meetup- Flinders St Station, under the clocks
9:30 travel
10:00 queen Victoria markets (including lunch)
1:00 travel
1:30 eureka tower
2:30 travel
3:00 ACMI
Apparently Wednesday's lunch is going to be decided on Wednesday. Surprises!
Your Lovely Leaders (tm) would like to get an approximate head count for each day. So sound off if/when you plan to be there and I'll make a list in the OP.
Do we have a special way to recognise each other?
I'll probably wear my Green and Gold PAX AUS 2013 scarf at least in the morning until it gets too warm. I could wear some ostentatious Australian top as well which might help. The place we meet (Flinders St Station under the clocks) is the big gaping entrance in this photo - https://irs2.4sqi.net/img/general/600x600/116172_P9JKAKmQqeNBLCy0BGXG6cNHK7NGf5yWvk58gFENEmg.jpg
- I'll be probably on the left of this picture on the stairs chatting with the street preachers, buskers and tourists.
Weather for Wed / Thursday are looking like particularly lovely Spring days, partly cloudy with a bit of a breeze in the low to mid 20s. That's in Australian Degrees. I'd suggest wearing layers. Melbourne it's all about the layers and adjusting to four seasons, sometimes in the same hour.
@minty737 grab a Myki card (public transport) at the airport on your way through if you can.
1. Mobile phone
2. Email
3. Random IM app of your choice?
If so send me a forum message and I'll arrange to make sure we have close to immediate comms with you,
Anyone know how much for each of the events, and travel?
Big THANKS ahead of time to punzie, squire pug and jazzy for leading this!
https://pinnypals.com/pals/flashe
Scienceworks is $12
Eureka Tower is $20 + $12 if you want to do the glass box thing.
Rest of the events you spend what you want. Lunches will be $15-30 I would think.