It’s a pretty big ask getting people to run a regular game in a different city to where they live. I reckon you’re onto the right idea thinking about running something.
There’s a whole lot of people up here hanging out for immersive well-costumed fantasy with live combat, I think you’d get some folk coming down if it looked like a regular campaign with an interesting setting that they could feel really involved in.
You’re welcome to borrow anything you like from the Mordavia rules, if they’re of any use/interest (probably the main use is that there are a hundred or so Aucklanders who are familiar with them). And especially if you ran a campaign as a society project you’d have no trouble borrowing a trailer load of society gear whenever you ran an event, which would take care of a lot of the costuming.