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I went on a bit of a road trip around regional NSW and rode a couple of toboggans, and broke a 1 year coaster drought, amongst other sightseeing. -On new years day I visited Corin Forest, which is a 40 min drive out of Canberra on a winding, but surprisingly fun road. https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/corin-forest Due to Covid they were running the Toboggan in 1 hour slots, which was actually awesome because it was like an ERT session, and you didn’t have to get off. The ride is on the wild side, the sleds don’t have governors, the track is steep, and there are a couple of hard turns you absolutely must hit the brakes for. It’s not just back to back u turns either, it does mix it up with other random turns along the way to break up the straights. You have to lean into the turns, but look out for the long weeds that whack you in the face growing by the trackside. The track itself had a few dings in the stainless, and some of the sleds could do with calibration because they pull to one side….In fact on my first run I came partially off the track on a straight section because the thing was listing to one side. Subsequent runs were a bit quicker, and with limited numbers you could space yourself to avoid catching up to anyone. -Later on New Years day I drove over the hill to Nowra, and checked out the Huskisson Carnival, operated by Joylands amusements. The place was very busy with half of Sydney seemingly on holiday, but it was well presented with a wide variety of rides including the Claw, Hurricane, Jurassic Coaster, and the target of my visit “Wild Mouse”, not actually a wild mouse, but a Galaxi type coaster that used to operate at Funland at Weston Super Mare in the UK (Thanks @Noxegon ). Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve been on a Galaxi for years. Thrillseeker is a distant memory, as is Metropolis, none of the major parks in the US seem to have them, and I haven’t been to Merimbula in a long time either, so I guess it felt novel. I dunno why they let bogans decorate rides though: It actually ran much smoother than I expected, no jolts or bumps aside from the final brakes. Reasonably popular with a 20 min wait. Good fun. "Step right up there's no waiting" I was thinking to myself, it would be great if someone like Gerstlauer took this layout, made the lift hill an uphill launch, and the first turn into a fan turn…would be a great standard model indoor coaster. -The drive back to Qld was long on the 3rd, but fairly easy these days since it’s largely non stop with the opening of Northconnex and the bypass of Grafton (I had to non stop through Sydney to meet the border pass restrictions at present). I made a bit of a decision on a whim to divert into Nelson bay to visit Toboggan hill park, my reasoning being the place has irregular trading hours, so I might as well do it whilst It was open and I was driving through the area at an appropriate hour (Often If I road trip to or from Syd, it’ll be very early or late passing through the area north of Newcastle) and rolled in around 3.30pm https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/toboggan-hill-park The place was surprisingly busy, with a 30 min line for the toboggan, but the staff were on the ball in terms of moving people through. The setting for the run is very nice, bushland and almost subtropical. The run is a decent length, with the turns a bit easier than the one at Corin, though the sleds have governors, so even if you send it and do a no brakes run you’ll max out fairly quickly and still not risk crashing. Unfortunately I caught up to a nervous rider halfway down so the thrills were short lived. At the bottom the operator saw that a catch up had occurred and told me to go again so I could get a proper ride. That’s service. If I had to rank the operating toboggans in Australia: -Corin -Jamberoo Fast -Jamberoo Slow -Funfields -Toboggan Hill -Big Banana Thredbo and Kinkuna Country I did too long ago to really judge fairly. -Bonus I was in Narrandera a couple of days before new years. I went down to the Lake Talbot swimming complex hoping to ride the last remaining Toboggan slide (As seen in the old SW water park, WnW Double screamer etc). It’s no longer there aside from a tribute photo on the entrance sign, but they have modernised the pool, and it’s huge for a regional town, with a new long body slide and a couple of brutal turbo tunnel type slides with an excessively tight and roughly joined helix. The open body slide was much more fun.

My kid LOVED the FMX show. It was short enough to keep his attention, there was shade around, you're super close, and the host was entertaining. No real preshow apart from music but with 4 shows a day and enough space to view, we kinda just walked up when we wanted to watch and didn't need to wait it out.

Haha the loading doors look like seedy hotel room doors I love it.

Man, the event just keeps getting more and more lacklustre each and every year. I understand that our parks aren't powerhouse of themed entertainment and are operating on a smaller budget, but it's reaching a point were every element has been regurgitated so much that any fun has been sucked out. Each show seemed repetitive with very little differing from day trade. Wheres the spectacle? Wheres the wow? I was holding out hope that the parade might've offered something unique but what I witnessed was the same as the Day Parade sans Looney Tunes. Now maybe I'm a cynical adult, and you might be correct, but shouldn't we be asking a little more from the parks than just the same old things?

It's been clearly much more thought out at Village

I think reflecting on the Summer activities Dreamworld got it right with Bluey, but very wrong with Monster Trucks. Extended evening trade would have been a cheaper and more appealing option I think.

Checked out the coaster this morning. It is nice refresh and fits really nicely within Ocean Parade. Removing the walls of the queue tower was a great idea. It is so much cooler walking up there now and gives you views of DW and WWW. While the theming is minimal, I don't think the coaster needs it. If this was a brand new coaster and this is all we got, it would be disappointing. But for a refurbishment on a 25+ year old coaster, it has a nice fresh feel. When you get to the 'inside' queue area, there are no fans or aircon, so it gets very hot in there. Thankfully the loading/unloading efficiency was very good (considering the train has social distancing), so we weren't stood in there for too long. The train itself is bright and fresh. As we expected still the same trains and restraints. Still not much leg room for taller people, but it is reasonably comfy. I was in the back row, which is known for being very comfortable on this coaster, but for me, it wasn't too bad. Speakers are still in the trains. It would be good if they had some music playing to suit the rides theme, but nothing too major.