Auckland Springeddon '26

09/11/2026



Hello friends! We're on the cusp of summer, can you believe it? Ugh this year has gone by so fast. Things continue to change in my life and I continue to be exhausted about it, but I'm managing. Somehow. Despite my internal struggles, fun things continue to happen in my life! The biggest one of these being my trip to Auckland for Spring Armageddon where I was once again helper for my dear friend S. The convention ran over four days which is absurdly long, by the way. Why the hell does it need to be that long?? Sure, one of the days was a half day (6pm-9pm) but still. I reckon they totally could've gotten rid of the last day.

On day one of con I wore BTSSB's Dreamy Pony Ribbon in a pretty casual style. Since the first day of con didn't start until 6pm, S and I spent the day "enjoying" Auckland city. I say "enjoying" because I hate Auckland. Don't get me wrong, I love the shopping and all of the stores we could never have in my country bumpkin end of the country, I just hate how big it is and how much stuff there is. And how lazy Aucklanders are!! Aucklanders I know will complain they can't be bothered trying out a new super cutesy kawaii dessert place across town because it's a 20 min drive away. Bitch last week I drove half an hour to another town for an ice cream and it wasn't even decorated all kawaii!

Auckland rant aside, we went to my favourite store in Auckland, The Graphic Novel Cafe, which isn't actually a cafe. I keep having to explain to people there is no food there. They have the best range of manga in probably all of New Zealand. Last time I visited I took advantage of their extensive BL section. This time I somehow managed to walk out without a single BL, instead grabbing Sailor Moon: Eternal Edition vol 4 and The Cain Saga vol 2! They had more volumes of The Cain Saga and I'm kind of regretting not getting them.

After this we went into the CBD for lunch and shopping! I went to a few Asian cosmetic stores and got a Can Make setting powder which makes your skin slightly glittery. I saw a lot of Dollywink lashes but didn't get any. Are they really worth the hype? They're so expensive! I'm still pretty new to falsies, I only started wearing them for lolita in July. There are so many cute Asian cosmetic, grocer and pop culture stores in Auckland, I'm really so jealous. I wish I'd had more suitcase space so I could have stocked up on cutesy snacks and candies.

We then made the very long trek across the city to a cafe one of my friends found on insta that looked adorable. And it was adorable!!! It's called Apple U and it's a pudding specialty store!!! I friggin love custard puddings. Eggs, milk, and sugar, baby. It's so good. Apple U was having a Halloween special menu at the time as well which is something I rarely ever see around here. I got the classic pudding parfait while Serena got the Halloween mochi ghost set. We both got their special Halloween refreshers as well. They were sooo cute!!! If this place was an hours drive away from me they would know me on a first name basis. It is so painful being a cutesy sweets girlie living out in the sticks where nobody knows what a parfait is.

Following this delightful pudding, we made our way over to the stadium to set up for the first day of con, or rather, half-day. We had done the bulk of the set up the day before, so all that really needed to be done was minor tidying. My friend S has actually double booked herself for the convention and for an Avenged Sevenfold concert, so I ran the stall by myself for the second half of the evening. The first evening was pretty quiet, we made a few sales, but not many people were there. The night showing seems to be more for hardcore fans or people who can't make it to the daytime events. I spent the majority of the time playing on my 3DS.

I should probably tell you what I was selling! The majority of the stall is for my friend's awesome alt clothing and goods brand Shit Imma Artist and a tiny little bit on the corner was for meee!!! I have two art prints, a few old ass stickers and the final volume of my Milk & Honey lolita fashion zine! I managed to sell 18 copies of my zine over the long weekend! How cool is that?

Day two was the most evil day of con. It was Saturday so it was absurdly busy. It was also absurdly hot. I wore a pretty OTT coord featuring AP's Cotton Candy Shop on this day, so I totally overheated! And I didn't even get any good photos!!! But it was ok because I had a lot of girls come up to be and go "oh my god!! is that Angelic Pretty?? I've never seen it in person before kyaa!!" I love you!!! I love you babylitas and lolita admirers. I do it for you!!! God... I love AP so much I wish I had more of it.

I saw a few of my lolita friends on this day and some really cool cosplayers! I spent a lot of this day actually abandoning S at the stall with her friend who was filming her for PR purposes because it was so damn hot. I tried to explore the con halls to do some shopping but ouuugh there were way too many people. Like you couldn't decide where to go, you just fell into the tide of the crowd and hoped they deposited you somewhere you wanted to be. It was like being carried by a river. So I spent a lot of time squatting outside the con under a tree pff. Apparently the con was so busy on this day because the special guest this year was Jared Padaleki of Sammy Winchester fame! Cool, but eh I was more of a Dean girlie. I wanna rewatch Supernatural someday...
The summary of this day was over-stimulated, over-heated, under-photographed. When I got back to the place we were staying I fell straight asleep and slept for 10 straight hours! We made a lot of money tho, so it was worth the suffering.

Day three was probably my most favourite day of the con! I wore another OTT coord featuring Sleepyland's Mahopati. Mahopati is really just the perfect dress to wear to a con, people always love it. It's also the only place I can wear the silly maid headband lol. This day was a great balance between busy and quiet. Lots of people, but not so many that you can't move around. It was also a lot cooler so nobody was overheating. This was the day I did all of my shopping. I played at being a shopping service for my friend D who was desperate for Umamusume merch lol. I also saw so many fun lolitas this day! I also got an awesome photo with fellow lolita Ruby's amazing Gloomy bear suit!! And I got wrangled by a tag wrangler!!! Check out the photos below lolol. I also got a whole lotta streetpasses on my 3DS on this day!

The fourth and final day was extremely chill! The con was nice and quiet so it was perfect for exploring. I was totally out of energy on this day and decided not to wear lolita, but still dressed decently kawaii. I met a few more lovely lolitas and had an incredible visit from the very talented AfroNinja360 who gifted me an illustration of my persona!!! It was especially sweet as I was actually wearing the dress my persona wears on this day! I've put it on my wardrobe door for the time being but I need to re-arrange my posters to make a better place for it.

Since it was so quiet, I was able to take a lot at some of the entertainment at con on this day! I checked out the gaming area, though I couldn't be bothered standing in line to play. I did play the corn throw game to win free instant noodles, though. One big complaint I do have about the con this year was the appalling lack of an ice cream truck. I feel like an ice cream truck of some sort is a staple of new Zealand cons, so it was strange to not have anyone selling any kind of ice cream. I get that soft serve in a cone is a cosplay mess hazard, but there's usually some kind of soft serve in a cup sundae or scouped ice cream in a cup situation. I hope the ice cream truck makes a return at the next con.

Over all this con was really great! My first time at Auckland springgeddon and I'm pretty excited to go again! In terms of shopping, I tried really hard to stick to my allowed merch list of yaoi, lolita and VHS tapes (curtesy of my tape plug RetroNerds). Something that really stood out to me was the amount of stalls that had little trinkets saying "I love yaoi!" without actually having anything BL or even shipping related!!! Fakefujoshis! The lot of you! My culture is not your costume!!! So I'm hoping to make a few BL themed stickers for next year. I as however very happy to see the amount of zines, including even some comic fanzines!! I'd love to try making one but ahh I've been out of comics for too long. Maybe...

Oh well! That's about all I have for this con recap! I'll make an actual life update blog very soon. I hope you enjoyed!
Until next time!