Costumiers' New Zealand Charitable Trust

Costumiers' New Zealand Charitable Trust (formerly CNZ Wild Adventures) is the not-for-profit initiative by Rozanne & Paul de Wild of deWildCosplay for the cosplay and creative communities of New Zealand...

HOW IT BEGAN  

"CNZ WILD ADVENTURES"

Costumiers' New Zealand Charitable Trust (formerly CNZ Wild Adventures) accidentally started with a simple idea in 2017 by Rozanne de Wild to help organise a trip just for some of "her kids" in their local cosplay community to Supanova Sydney in 2018.  She opened up the invite to the rest of the New Zealand cosplay community and ended up taking a massive 70 cosplayers, cosplay photographers and exhibitors.

Rozanne de Wild (deWildCosplay) organises these trips for the Cosplay New Zealand community as a not-for-profit venture to give kiwi cosplayers the opportunity to travel to overseas conventions.

An expected trip cost is worked out and a budgeted amount for what is required to be saved is paid per week into the nominated trip account.  Any savings in excess of the final trip costs are paid back / returned to the cosplayer for their spending money on the trip.

At the conclusion of the Sydney 2018 trip Rozanne didn't intend to do further trips but the community kept asking when the next one/ones would be, so here we are, having now taken 32 to Supanova (Melbourne) in April 2019 and 55 to Oz Comic Con (Brisbane) 2019.

Due to the COVID-19 situation the then CNZ Wild Adventure was forced to cancel both our Supanova (Sydney) June 2020 trip and the Dragon Con (Atlanta) / USA September 2020 group trip, and Supanova (Gold Coast) in April 2022.  

With the world now reopened and flight prices gradually reducing Rozanne is looking to arrange another trip to Australia in 2026.

Events & trips are organised by Rozanne and Paul in their evenings and weekends, outside their full time employment.

Rozanne & Paul de Wild have been known as 'mum & dad' by many in the local and New Zealand cosplay community and been actively involved in both the local cosplay community in the Bay of Plenty and with national events / conventions since 2013.

LET'S HAVE A BALL

Costumiers' New Zealand Charitable Trust
2024 and beyond

The vision to create the "Costumiers' Fantasy Masquerade Ball" came from the collective experiences of Rozanne & Paul's attending the spectacular Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade Ball in Los Angeles, discovering a magical world of fantasy and dreams - along with attending Dragon Con, a massive cosplay / sci-fi convention with up to 80,000 attendees per day, and held across 5 international hotels (and then some) in Atlanta. 

Combined with this, the CNZ Wild Adventures oversea trip to Sydney and Melbourne had shown the value of staying, playing and being together in one venue / event. Kiwi cosplayers on these trips experienced a deeper sense of belonging, many making new and strong friendships with others from all over the country. 

In 2016 Rozanne had started organising what became the annual "End of The World' party events on the Saturday evening of the Tauranga Armageddon each year - so scroll forward to 2019, and those who weren't on our USA 2020 trip starting asking for 'a Cosplay Ball'. 

Never one to shy away, Rozanne & Paul sought out a venue which would offer them key elements they were looking for, and in July 2019, they announced the inaugural "Costumiers' Fantasy Masquerade Ball" for July 2020 for the cosplay community.

Life has a funny way of working, and when COVID came along and closed down the world, and the ball got reset to 2021, that 'extra year' of planning and development meant Paul & Rozanne were able to deliver on more of their future plans for the event weekend from the start. 

 They surrounded themselves with an awesome team of volunteers, leaned into previous contacts & relations from events & function industry and when the 'inaugural' event did occur in July 2021, the weekend was nothing short of amazing. 

 The Creative Costuming community continues to grow and develop, and we're super excited to see where this takes us. 

 As from October 2024 CNZ Wild Adventures is now the "Costumiers' New Zealand Charitable Trust" 

- see our Charitable Purpose and details about our trust here.   

Always a fun time with the groups winning spot prizes for various activities during the weekend.

This is their 'reporter on the spot' videos for Supanova Melbourne 2019.