[No photo! Because of “health and safety regulations,” everyone had to put anything with a battery into a locker before the tour began.]

Why? We were in Bundaberg, home of Bundaberg rum, which is virtually unknown in the US but very big here in Oz. (In terms of market size and presence, the best US analogy might be Jack Daniels, not Bacardi or any other rum). We saw it recommended on Trip Advisor, so: “Let’s give it a go!”

How did it go? I’m not a rum drinker, but when companies set their mind on providing a good tour, they can really do a good job. Appealing tour guide team with appealing patter, and all that. The running gimmick was trying to get us to yell “Huzzah!” at something positive and “Poppycock!” at something negative. The tour started with molasses vats and ended at the bar, where each adult got two free drinks.

Would you do it again? This is the second time I’ve seen a tour of how alcohol gets made (the first was the Sierra Nevada brewing company in California), and both times I was glad I went. So probably not another rum distillery, but definitely up for something else in this vein, especially if it ends with drinks.

Why? After eating dinner last night, we saw Nitrogenie nearby and exclaimed, “Let’s give it a go!” After all, how can someone resist the slogan Ice Cream From Magic.

How’d it go? There is perhaps a more general lesson, that could be called “The Parable of the Dippin’ Dots.” Dippin’ Dots had the slogan Ice Cream Of The Future, but Dippin’ Dots are dying out, because the ice cream of the present is pretty awesome and hard to improve upon.

The idea of this place was nifty, as was all the fog swirling behind the counter. But the ice cream itself wasn’t as good as what you’d expect from a specialty ice cream shop. Not bad, but a place that’s whole business is ice cream needs to be better than that. The alternative would be that they could make the process of making your ice cream more of a production, but other than the fog about there wasn’t much to see.

Would you do it again? There are enough alternative sweet options in that area that I suspect not. Maybe someday.

Why? Because I’m getting old! Apologies for my senescence being a recent “Let’s give it a go!” theme.

How’d it go? I used to wear glasses all the time, and then had my eyes fixed with Lasik about 10 years ago. The Lasik people said over and over that it didn’t fix the problems that led people to need reading glasses around age 45. I’m more than two years short of 45, though, so I’m not sure if this is premature aging, or if the Lasik people were given an high-end estimate.

I had them awhile before I started wearing them, but I feel like my eyesight has gotten noticeably worse since I’ve arrived in Australia. Now that I’m used to them, it’s easy just to leave them on–it’s just like being near-sighted, and weird how easy it is to tolerate stuff being blurry in the distance when all one has to do is lift the glasses for it to be clear.

Seeing them in the mirror has also taken some getting used to, but one upside there is that they help with the racoon-eyes problem.

Will you do it again? Now that I’m wearing them a lot, I regret to see that the sensibility of bifocals becomes plainer every day. So perhaps they’ll be another optometric-related “Let’s give it a go!” soon.

Why? Between Trip Advisor and Yelp and Goodreads and Amazon and Boardgamegeek and I-don’t-know-what-else, we use other people’s reviews quite a bit when making decisions. But we haven’t done much reviewing ourselves.

When we were on the New Zealand trip, we resolved to give Trip Advisor reviewing a go. As is my wont to turn casual notions into dramatic resolutions, I declared that we should have doing at least 100 reviews as our goal. (Username for our reviews: beckie+jeremy)

How’d it go? We’re somewhere in the 30’s at this point, I think, and mildly stalled. We’ll see if we make it. TA does what they can to provide you with feedback, in terms of sending you a thank-you for each review, having different sorts of “achievements”, letting you know when somebody clicks your reviews as helpful, etc.. And they do not take very much time to knock out. Still, it’s also not especially rewarding, and it’s hard to know how many people are going to actually read your review as opposed to just look at ratings.

Would you do it again? Of course, TA makes more sense if you are traveling. I’d still like to get to 100, so we’ll see how we integrate it into our next trip.