Lots of family fun in Sydney at Luna Park and Taronga

THE authentic 1930s Sydney theme park makes a lasting impression along with Taronga Zoo during a family weekend in the New South Wales capital.

Luna Park sydney Escape

SURELY the Ferris wheel is the most benign of all carnival rides, with the exception of perhaps the carousel?

Why, then, did I start to freak out as our little green carriage surged skyward? Maybe it was because I hadn't ridden the wheel since I was a child, or perhaps it was because I had my own two anxious children with me.

Nevertheless, the fear was fleeting for all of us as we took in the view from the top. I wondered if people who live in Sydney realise how beautiful their city is.

Luna Park was top of the to-do list when we took our two young girls to Sydney for a long weekend. I was curious how this 1930s amusement park would stack up in the eyes of a couple of children who've done all the "worlds" on the Gold Coast.

Luna Park has a few of the thrill rides that you'll see at any country show and a handful of sideshow attractions that, also in the country show tradition, are nearly impossible to win. But what is unique about Luna Park is the Coney Island Fun House with authentic 1930s attractions: the mirror maze, spinning barrels, obstacle courses and ye olde turkey trot, which is exactly what you look like while attempting to walk across its sliding platforms.

Lame? Not at all. This was the place the girls wanted to return again and again, and it's my lasting memory of our visit. That, and my four-year-old winning a large fluffy duck on the laughing clowns; the first person I've seen win anything on those things.

It was a remarkably stress-free outing. The only problem for me was the park's ticketing process. The prices are set depending on the child's height, so my very tall seven-year-old was forced to have the more expensive wristband for all the fast teenage rides, which also banned her from going on the little rides with her sister.

Anyway, the bigger issue was  - where was everyone? It was surprisingly quiet. Maybe it's their "heightist" attitude to ticketing or, perhaps, as I suspect, Sydneysiders consider Luna Park too gauche, so they abandon it to the tourists.

The same cannot be said of Taronga Zoo, where we spent the following day. It was so busy that we gave up on seeing some of the drawcard big cats because we couldn't fight through the great wall of tourists jammed up against the glass.

Still, there are more animals to see and we happily moved on to those poor creatures for whom no one else wanted to stop. (Gorillas anybody?)

The favourite attraction again surprised me. It wasn't the African animals, big cats or chimps but the birds. The bird show, featuring well-trained owls, parrots, kites and even a condor, had us all open-jawed.

Showing the kids around a city such as Sydney could take weeks. We had time only to tick off the big ones: the Opera House, Harbour Bridge and The Rocks. Thankfully, our accommodation, Rendezvous Hotel in the Rocks, was the perfect base and a short walk or ferry ride from all of those tourist icons. It also welcomes little guests with a Fabzoolous Getaway package. We stayed in a one-bedroom apartment with a small kitchenette, which proved ideal for that exotic meal of two-minute noodles at the end of a long, long day at the zoo.

I think my children were suitably impressed with Sydney. For me, Sydney's biggest star is the harbour. For three days, no matter where we were, what we saw, the harbour was always in view and we watched all those lucky buggers with boats cavorting on the water. Of course they realise how beautiful their city is.

 The writer was a guest of Rendezvous Hotel Sydney The Rocks.

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Go2

SYDNEY

- Getting there

Regional Express, QantasLink and Virgin Australia fly to Sydney from regional areas.

- Staying there

Rendezvous Hotel Sydney The Rocks offers a Fabzoolous Family Getaway Package, with two nights' accommodation, a family pass for two adults and two children to Taronga Zoo, and return harbour transfers.

See rendezvoushotels.com

- Doing there

Luna Park has unlimited ride passes from $19.95-$39.95.
See lunaparksydney.com