We left Hervey Bay early in the morning and headed up to Bundaberg. We are catching a Great Barrier Reef tour out of here tomorrow. We stopped on the way to get breakfast and then made our way to our new hotel to drop off our bags for them to hold. We were very lucky as the hotel managed had already gotten our rooms organised so we were able to check in and leave our stuff properly.
We then made our way to the Bundaberg Distillery. We were booked in to do a 12 o’clock tour so we had some time to look through the museum and learn about the history of Bundaberg rum. It showed he distilling process as well as where all the ingredients come from. It is cool to know that all the sugar cane is grown locally. We found out the importance of rum in war and most importantly I found out why there is a polar bear on the bundy bottle. Turns out the man who designed the bundy bottle and Label name was Sam McMahon. McMahon means “Son of a Bear” in Irish, and his favourite bear was the polar bear.
At 12 the tour started and we were taken through the distillery. We were not allowed to take any phones with us so we don’t have any photos. However, we got see the molasses room and storage and brewing areas. I am sure Dani will explain in much more detail if you want to know more. After the tour we got to try 2 samples. 1 Rum and 1 liqueur, I had the banana and toffee liqueur which was really nice and one of the Makers batch rums. They were pretty good.
It was then time to head to the Bundaberg Barrel to sample the soft drinks. A short 3 min drive later and we were there. Bundaberg currently has 13 flavours of soft drink so we got to sample them all and then choose our own 6 pack to take home. We also got to see the process of how the soft drinks are made.
We then headed over to Alexandra Park Zoo, which is a tiny but beautifully presented little zoo. It is free to enter. It only has a few animals but the enclosures are so well done and so nice. I was very impressed. We spent some time in the zoo looking at mostly the dingos and the spotted quoll. It was a realy beautiful free thing to do.
We ended the day with a bit of shopping and an early Thai dinner. We have to be up super early tomorrow,