Noxegon

Luna Park has added something called "Jungle Twist", which I'm guessing is a travelling ride on hire for the summer months...

I'll respectfully disagree with you on that. Most of the Gold Coasters (see what I did there?) are fairly run of the mill attractions. There are a few that stand above the average, such as Superman and Jet Rescue, but there's really nothing that I'd describe as an "absolute must visit for any enthusiast". There are two big holes in the lineup, IMHO – you've no full circuit coaster above 200 feet, and no modern wooden coaster. Besides, you got the new Justice League dark ride only a few years ago.

Can't see a Blue Fire clone given that you already have Superman - it'd be the same ride. Eurofighters are honestly a bit mediocre (and I include Abyss in that, though it is one of the better ones). It'll be interesting to see what this is, and whether it's enough to subject myself to two days on airplanes....

I find it difficult to believe that a city the size of Sydney can't support a decent sized theme park. You do after all have Luna Park sitting on what has to be some of the most expensive real estate anywhere in the world...

For what it's worth, this story made the European news today... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3237915/Former-Wonderland-ride-operator-self-millionaire-plans-resurrect-beloved-theme-park-1-billion.html I take it from the general level of cynicism that this is an ongoing saga?

Megan has posted her latest chapter -- Sydney: http://pirouettes.org/?p=1266

That looks like fun. Adventure World just keeps getting better.

Nigloland is not to be missed. Walygator isn't a great park but the B&M is superb. The real thing with France is to track down the travelling "Super Railway". That ride is the best coaster in the country IMHO – if you can find where it's operating during your visit.

The operators at Adventure World do indeed show the rest of the world how the job should be done.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you.... "Velikoluksky Meat-Packing Plant Mountain". Seriously.

Crikey, that's enormous. I was hoping not to have to visit Perth on my next Australia trip... but looking at that...

ZacSpins are horrible. Not a fan at all.

AlexB has just made my morning.

From here: https://www.ayersrockresort.com.au/accommodation/desert-gardens-hotel "A magnificent sanctuary of towering ghost gums and flowering native shrubs among the red dunes, 4.5 star Desert Gardens is a welcoming hotel". You are wrong. Even if we wanted to cook for ourselves, there was no kitchenette in our room. Nor would I expect one; with four and a half stars it is surely not unreasonable to expect food to be available? OK, I'll give you that one Again, I'll accept that. But if you'd read the entire report, you'd see that Megan analysed that bit from top to bottom. As neither of us grew up in a desert environment I'm not sure why you feel we'd have guessed about something like this. We did quite a bit of research before our trip, using the resort web site and other references, and we found no mentions of them. If the other tourists in the area were anything to go by we were far from the only people to miss that. Given that they are a major issue, is it too much to ask for fly nets/etc to be on sale in the hotel lobby? (Spoiler: yes). This report was written by a woman who eight months ago left her home country to emigrate to the other side of the world. She also has a degree in Anthropology from a prestigious college in the United States.

​...yet you feel qualified to comment?

Megan has just posted her thoughts on Uluru: http://pirouettes.org/?p=1190

Sky News is very closely related to Fox News; it's tabloid television of the worst kind. This is far from the first time Kay Burley has gone off the reservation: http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/sky-news-anchor-kay-burley-199426

I still think "Episode of Little Fairies" is the oddest name for a coaster... http://rcdb.com/1304.htm

RCDB is reporting that the ride once known as Cool & Fresh has finished its stay in Australia and will open later this year in Turkey. http://rcdb.com/8085.htm It only ever opened once at the Royal Easter Show, right?

Nonsense. The difference between the old and the new is night and day. Do you really, honestly believe that? Batman the Ride was junk. Justice League is a great family attraction. I liked it a lot... If the operations were better I'd agree with you, but at present you kind of need a full day because everything other than Scooby Doo is run at about a quarter of the manufacturer's designed throughput...

Thanks for posting back, Mark – also thanks to your team for sharing Megan's trip report on your Facebook page; she loved that!

It's the only one with eight seater cars. It's also several of orders magnitude smoother than the ones with four. I don't know what they did differently, but it is by far the best of the El Crappos.

Expected, yes. Accepted without complaint, I think not. It's also worth noting that the car was an antique by the standards of rental cars; it had an enormous dent in the roof and over 100,000 on the clock. Assuming most of those were done at $0.30/km, I think the cost of the vehicle would be well and truly covered.

Yes. Next question?

It was two days, not three. The breakdown of the amount was (in AUD) – - $201 base rate - $200 one way fee - $36 premium location surcharge - $75 other taxes/fees - $0.30 per kilometre driven after the first two hundred. - $1.94 per litre of fuel in the only station in the area The one way fee was to be expected, and I don't resent that for a moment. However, it should have included enough kilometres to cover that journey; even if we'd driven straight from from one airport to the other we'd have run up an additional $78 in distance charges before we started. Additionally, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is not a small place; I suspect we'd have blown through the free kilometre allowance even if we'd hired from Ayers Rock Airport. For purposes of comparison, we drove a rental from Sydney to Melbourne over three days that cost us, including fuel, AUD $350. I reckon that the whole Ayers Rock expedition cost us roughly the same as our long haul flight bookings from Europe, and the experience wasn't even close to being worth it.