The Down Under #E1EW Tour Recap!

It’s been a few weeks since Rob took the first step in our 2017 #E1EW campaign. Now that his body clock has readjusted to MHQ time we thought it would be good to update you on the trip he took “Down Under.”

The number of players met in Melbourne, Shepparton (Shepzee), Queenstown, and Auckland made the hours and hours of travel time well worth it. The tour started with a nice Italian meal in the suburbs of Melbourne attended by players from near and far. It was a first chance to meet Louise, and a great time for Rob to reminisce with players he’d met on a trip 2 years ago at the same restaurant. The manager even remembered him, but it might have been because of the large group and the suit! This was a great chance to sit and talk with players who had recently started playing the game and hear about how the game was growing down under.

Next it was time for the big event on Australia Day! January 26, 2017 over 100 players traveled to Elsternwick Park in Melbourne for a great event. The event hosts thought of everything and arrived early to secure a shelter with built in grills for players to barbeque their lunch. Everyone had a great time celebrating this national holiday with friends from near and far, Rob & Louise even dressed up for the occasion! Rob’s personal highlight from the event was seeing the excitement as a group of friends surprised Debolicious with their attendance. The dancing and screaming was proof that the surprise worked 100%. Louise loved that the hosts planned a celebration for her birthday with cake and a card signed by everyone. Once again she thanks all of you for that special effort.

Australia Day event in Melbourne.

The next day our event duo was off to meet with the Tourism board in Shepparton, talk with the mayor, and attend multiple events. During a 2 hour drive north from Melbourne to Shepparton, Rob experienced something new. He was the passenger, capping a long trail of resorts tying Melbourne to Shepparton. It was difficult on occasion to time it just right to cap within 300 feet so he made some notes about a change that needed to occur. Capping while driving is definitely not encouraged, but a new capture proximity has been put in place to help passengers. 500 feet (approx 152 meters) is the new capture range, thanks to the play on this trip. The deploy proximity has not been changed and will remain 3500 feet.

The tourism board in Shepparton is interested in setting up munzees and using the app to help track the moooovement of their cow art exhibit. This is part of a “Get mooooving” campaign to get the residents of Shepparton and surrounding areas active and ties in with the E1EW campaign of Munzee. One of the employees set up an account during the meeting and even showed up at the event a few hours later! The event was organized by local players led by “Down Under Rob” aka Rob Steer aka rubik80. He gets a special mention in this blog post because he worked with the city of Shepparton to setup this special Get Mooooving event at Victoria Park LAKE. (DU)Rob set up for the mayor to attend and announce that Shepparton’s name would officially be changed to Sheppzee for the duration of Team Munzee’s visit! This was the first time such an honor has been bestowed on Munzee and a very touching moment. It was amazing and cemented a place in Munzee history for this special town.

SheppZee event in SheppZee (AKA Shepparton).

Next on the agenda was a special Munzee event held at the Aussie Hotel in downtown Shepparton. At the event, hosts from different states of the Australian federation presented Rob and Louise with gifts from their respective locations. Gifts to learn more about the area, the sports, and the people were heartwarming but most unexpected were the gifts to bring home to the kids. The gifts are displayed at MHQ as a daily reminder of the people who live nearly ten thousand miles from MHQ but are a big part of the game! Thank you to each player who attended the dinner and to those who presented the gifts, they mean the world to us.

CZeeO Rob Vardeman, Munzee Events Manager Louise Gibson and Australian player Rob Steer AKA Rubik80.

Saturday morning a group of players from Western Australia hosted an event near the main “Cow Park” in Sheppzee, complete with a very fun Eventzee hunt. The hunt was a great tour of the newly named town of Sheppzee which concluded at the visitor center. Everyone had a great time and a special presentation was made to the founder of Zaidee’s Rainbow Foundation. Rob presented a check for $2500 on behalf of Munzee players worldwide to Allan, Zaidee’s father. During the event special cards were sold with funds also being donated to ZRF, and one more crazy thing. Rob is known for wearing crazy and colorful suits, made by Opposuits. One of the hosts came up with the idea to allow players to wear the jacket for a picture for a five dollar donation to ZRF. Over $100 was raised just from jacket pictures! In the end a final donation of $3250 was given to ZRF on behalf of players in the spirit of our E1EW 2017 campaign!

Zaidee’s Rainbow Foundation event

Next up on the “Down Under E1EW Tour” was an event in Queenstown, New Zealand. Rob and Louise organized the event as a brief meetup during a personal holiday extension to spend time with Louise’s sister and family. Half a dozen players traveled from all over the south island to meet at “Cowboy”, seemingly appropriately named for the visitor from Texas. 🙂 Everyone had a great time trading Munzee stories and also added to the ZRF donation via special cards purchased at the event.

Queenstown, New Zealand event.

The final event of the Tour was held at One Tree Hill in Auckland, New Zealand. Players gathered from all over New Zealand’s north island and a few even visited from Australia. It was lovely to chat with the players who are really beginning to grow a large group locally, even forming several clans. One special event munzee was even deployed on Louise’s 15 month old niece, Nia, giving players the mission of catching a roaming toddler! The hospitality of the players from this event was special with many gifts, some handmade, that are now on display on the other side of the world! A few of the tasty gifts even made nice snacks for everyone back at the office, so a big THANKS to the Kiwi Players.

One Tree Hill event in Auckland, New Zealand.

2017 started with an amazing journey to the other side of the world, but we couldn’t think of a better group of people for the kick off. A heartfelt thanks from Rob and Louise for the hospitality and the conversations that mean the most at events. We take the ideas from these conversations and turn them into action back at MHQ, including the Bilby host badge for upcoming events. Stay tuned for more lessons learned and adventures to be shared over the course of the year.

Everyone. Everywhere.

Check out the video below to see the official recognition ceremony of SheppZee (excuse the loud ambulance!) and our donation to Zaidee’s Rainbow Foundation!