In a week, Australia's Gold Coast will host an "After Dark Park" night at one of the biggest amusement parks there, Dreamworld. That's the place we know as home to the Tower of Terror roller coaster, although it's also got a new big thrill ride called Motocoaster, a nearly 45-mile-per-hour roller coaster where you're strapped in to a replica 500 cc motor bike.

But next week, on March 28, the attention will be centered on the Zero to Hero contest, the annual FlowBoarding competition. That takes place on the FlowRide attraction, a mix of surfing, skateboarding and bodysurfing which is definitely exciting to watch.

Entry to the After Dark special opening is by reserved ticket, and the final of the FlowBoarding takes place at 9:30 pm. Some attractions will be closed but all the big scary rides will be open. We're holding out to see if anyone will cross the Motocoaster with the FlowRide to get some kind of swimming motorbike experience.

Related Stories:
· Dreamworld Gold Coast [Official Site]
· World's Scariest Roller Coasters: The Tower of Terror [Jaunted]
· Amusement Parks coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Soapstar D'Lux]]]> amandak 2008-03-21T09:00:02-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/11/12/71551/850

A weekend write-up on fun on Australia's Gold Coast let us know that there is actually more stuff there than overrated fun parks (even if they do have great rollercoasters). Among other suggestions is a trip to see the glow worm caves of the national park just inland from the Gold Coast.

The tip is to take a night tour because you won't see so much glow-power during the day. An organized trip also means the tour company takes care of the restrictions on visitor numbers. You'll head out to the Natural Bridge cave, watch the glow worms and then get to eat Aussie cake for dinner. To be honest, we don't know much about these glow worms but we do know that cake is delicious.

Related Stories:
· Aries' Glow Worm Tours [Official Site]
· Thrills in Paradise [news.com.au]
· World's Best Caves: Waitomo Glow Worm Caves [Jaunted]
· Gold Coast Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo of glow worms: timparkinson]]]> amandak 2007-11-12T12:00:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/6/21/233017/513

No, we are not talking about the Disney ride. That's the Twilight Zone Tower Terror, and shut up right now if you think that's scarier than Dreamworld's Tower of Terror in Australia. Sure, both rides have some serious free-falling action - but Australia's Tower of Terror has you do it backwards. At 90 degrees.

Oh, and it's the fastest roller coaster in the Southern Hemisphere. So, let's just look at the big picture here: when you ride the Tower of Terror, you climb 38 stories high at 100 mph, then you free-fall backwards, hurtling rapidly towards the ground. Yeah, that certainly sounds terrifying to us.

Thrill! As You View the World's Scariest Roller Coasters Map.

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Hotel s in Gold Coast Australia [Hotel Chatter]
Australia Travel [Jaunted]]]> dasubermeg 2007-06-22T11:08:59-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/1/16/93755/1994
While the stars gathered in Hollywood for the Golden Globes, Tara Reid (not a star, clearly) was presumably still marooned in Australia. She recently showed up there to fulfill some paid promotional duties surrounding the Magic Millions horse race.

She recovered from the long, long transit from South America quickly enough to show up at Queensland's Sea World marine theme park and harass some dolphins. Day tickets there are $50. Now that Tara's been there and done that, you're probably safe dropping the cash since it's unlikely she'll show up there again. Too scared to touch the dolphins that have also been touched by Tara? The beach at Surfers Paradise is close by.

[Photo: TMZ]

Related Stories:
· The Sky Is Falling! Tara Reid Looks Hot! [TMZ]
· Tara love 'magic' dolphins [Herald Sun]
· Tara Reid charged 100,000 dollars for two-week carnival in Australia! [DailyIndia]]]> djk 2007-01-16T09:37:55-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/