1) Good. Why would they call the first zone the name of the entire island? Meh...
2) Fair enough. Are we then assuming that the island needs 7 Chaos Emeralds, 7 Super Emeralds *AND* the Master Emerald to float? That's kinda weird. Wait, no it's not, since without the Chaos Emeralds, there can be no Super Emeralds.
>_>
<_<
*Is confused*
4) Yeah, I'd have to agree there. Mind you, it looks as though Mushroom Hill Zone is pretty damn huge too. Hydrocity and Carnival Night would have to go for smallest, as they'd probably only be the size of a small city each.
5) Damn. I thought I'd beaten your Tails time by a minute :(.
Wait, does that mean that you could essentially do the two different sections at completely different times, add together your best, and see what you get?
Oh well! Time to start up the GCN again!