I told an Irish flute player I met at the bar of the Drunken Poet that it had been named among the best Irish pubs outside of Ireland.
“No mate,” he corrected me. “This place is better than most of the pubs at home.”
If you’re in Melbourne on St. Patrick’s Day it’d be rude not to pop in here…or any day, to be fair, given the craic on offer at this absolute stalwart.
It has all the hallmarks of what makes a great Irish pub: a warm space of small nooks and crannies, tiny circles of chairs crammed with talented musicians named Caihome or Aoife, plus the best pint of Guinness in Australia.
The pub gets its name from the portraits of ‘drunken’ poets that line the walls. There’s live music from talented fiddlers and flutists, or live poetry and spoken word six nights a week. This is the key – there’s always something happening, which is what makes it so special. Sláinte.
Looking for work? How does getting paid to travel, skydive, climb and capture content for the world’s premier adventure content specialists sound?
Even if you’re not in the market for a new job, we think this one is probably cooler than the one you’ve got.
Adrenaline and GoPro are on the hunt for an adventure-seeking content creator to become an official Adrenaline creator in 2022. This means swapping the office for cliffs, the ocean, the dunes and the sky. Sounds cool, right?
The role sees one grand prize winner receive a $100,000 contract to participate in and shoot 12 adventures across four campaigns for the adventure marketplace over a year-long period.
This means travelling around the world and filming epic adventures and experiences. It’s being billed as ‘The Best Job in the World’ but it actually is, the best job in the world.
Photography and adventure enthusiasts can enter from today by uploading a photo or video of their adventurous activity to the GoPro awards website.
There are just two ingredients you need for an incredible brewery experience.
Good beer is mandatory, but an almost treasure-hunt-like experience to find a new brewery always reminds you that the journey is always more important than the destination.
Wyadra Brewing is a small craft beer producer operated by John and Kate Dall on their remote property at Tallong in southern New South Wales. And when we say property, we mean literal tin shed propped up against an old oak tree and sandwiched between a dirt track and busy freight rail line.
After traversing the aforementioned endless dirt track, Wyadra appears like a mirage on the horizon.
Three crowns from its icon logo emerging like a beacon of beer beckoning us for a good afternoon of boozing in the bush.
In the brewshed, you can gather around John’s makeshift timber bar and roaring log fireplace while old vintage cars hover on hoists above – one of which is an old red Lamborghini.
In between John’s home-made hors d’oeuvre of Primo cabanossi and tasty cheddar cheese, the real star of the show at Wyadra is the beer.
And if you’re looking for an afternoon to settle in and forget you’re actually miles away from Australia’s biggest city, acoustic guitar acts from the bush frequent the shady branches of Wyadra’s old oak on a Saturday afternoon.
Ask for a tour of John’s mechanic shed-cum-brewery and be sure to buy a sticker for your Esky so you can tell your kids about your experience, this one won’t remain a secret from Sydneysiders for long.
In Melbourne on Valentines Day weekend? Needing somewhere to take that someone special? Say no more – Milney’s has you covered.
You could be forgiven for not noticing the discreet entrance to Milney’s as you walk down the northern end of busy Brunswick Street. It’s literally just a door without signage; nothing to suggest one of Melbourne’s most chic spots lies a gentle turn of the handle behind.
But that is exactly what awaits, a luscious plant and light-filled courtyard backing onto a dimly lit bar area perfect for whispering sweet-nothings into someone’s ear, provided of course that you know that person.
In fairness, Milney’s is much more than just a Valentines Day specialist – it’s a bar that perfects the difficult-to-perfect balance between uber-cool and unpretentious; for instance, you can pay $90 for caviar, which comes served with a side of Pringles – straight out of the box.
There’s a solid cocktail list, craft and old-school beers, wines and more.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern this week announced a staged opening of New Zealand’s borders.
If it were us here at get lost that was traveling across the dutch, we know where we would want to stay. It’s called ‘The Ark’. And it’s f-arking delightful.
The Ark is a houseboat, but not as you know it. It’s situated in a quiet corner of a lake, five minutes down the road from a quaint village with an even quainter pub and a winery.
It’s a little wooden shack docked onto the wharf of the lake, with a deck to sit out and read, drink or get a tan, or maybe all at once. Go for a dip in the lake when it’s warm, or build a fire in the pit when it’s cold.
Even better: you’re completely off-grid here. No work emails nor pesky notifications from Zuckerberg. It’s arguably THE perfect place to unwind and relax – thanks for letting everyone back in, Jacinda.
That’s the name of the brand new cocktail bar that’s just opened in Darwin city centre to plenty of hype, the brainchild of several lynchpins of the Australian bartending scene.
Dim lighting, New York-speakeasy style interiors and smartly dressed bartenders greet punters on arrival, all in, it must be said, slightly un-Darwin like fashion.
There’s an extensive list of cocktails – including the place’s namesake, the Hanky Panky, which is gin, sweet vermouth, Fernet-Branca and orange slice served on ice.
We reckon that if you find yourself in the heat of Australia’s tropical far north, you could probably do with a refreshment (or seven) like this.
If you can’t get to Darwin though, here’s how you can make it at home, thanks to Doctor Cocktail himself, Dirk Hany*:
*This guy has no association with the Hanky Panky Lounge – we just found him to be a pretty great cocktail Doctor.
Arcadia Expeditions’ new ‘Story of Aotearoa’ is no normal lesson in history.
Certainly, the history lessons I had at school did not feature full-day private cruises, helicopters up to helicopter-only accessible areas of pristine wilderness or seafood dinners cooked in a geothermal pool.
That’s what you’ll get on this expedition though, a 13-day journey led by Dr James Robinson, one of New Zealand’s leading archaeologists, and the award-winning Māori guide Ceillhe Sperath.
There’s incredible food and wine to gorge on, and the absolutely majestic Bay of Islands to take in (seriously, that place is something else).
But as much as anything, it’s a chance to understand that country across the ditch: how did they get here, what is Maori culture and why on Earth do they say fush and chups like that?*
Down Under Submarines is the brand new submarine experience that allows you to go 30 metres below the ocean’s surface. The SUBCAT-30 (which is yellow, naturally) is the first of it’s kind in Australia: a hybrid vessel, that can both dive underwater and travel on top of the water’s surface like a catamaran
Coming down and going back up are arguably the highlights; a special hull above the water allows passengers the unusual, weighted experience of both submersion and refloating.
Cruising along at 30 metres below will make you feel like you’re in a James Bond movie, and you’ll even get to check out the control room.
A heap of super cool, submarine-esque circular windows allows you to see coral, fishies, and anything swimming with the fishies, such as mermaids and deposed Mafia chiefs.
There’s two options: the ‘Submarine Dive Experience’ which has a dive time of around 30 minutes plus 20 minutes surface travel, and the ‘Yellow Submarine Cruise’ will go for an hour at sunset just outside Mooloolaba’s main beach or along sheltered canals, depending on the weather conditions.
The Coombs Hill Barn is a spectacular five bedroom “barn” with views to die for across the Delatite Valley.
The structure itself is a 160-year-old barn from Illinois, USA (YeeHaw!). It was painstakingly pulled apart and shipped across to Australia, before being rebuilt, albeit with a few added bells and whistles.
In essence, this place is epic. Picture a celebrity’s mountain pad on the ski slopes of Montana or Wyoming and Coombs Hill is it. A massive fireplace is the focal point of the 10 metre high main living room, with original barn beams crossing throughout.
A fully decked out kitchen, table tennis table, a couple of chill zones with floor to ceiling windows, dining table for 18 and a deck to lose yourself in the views; you’ll fund yourself strutting around like George Clooney.
This is the perfect pad to explore the Victorian High Country; from mountain biking the trail of Mt Buller to lounging in the Jamieson river with a craft brewski, it was damn hard to leave.
The Gold Coast is all beaches, theme parks and nightclubs right?
Wrong! The secret is slowly getting out about the appropriately named Scenic Rim, one hour inland from the coast, a haven of nature, wine and wildlife. Wander have recently built five eco-cabins on the banks of Lake Wyaralong, in the heart of the Rim.
The Gold Coast draws 5 million + visitors a year, and the cabins represent the perfect way to get away from maddening crowds, and get a bit of your own time in. It’s set on a winery, and there’s only five cabins, so you’ll hardly be jostling with 18-year-olds on their schoolies trips.
There’s wildlife, there’s waterfalls, there’s the lake and Eucalyptus bushland. Whatever the definition for idyllic is in the dictionary, replace it with a picture of this joint.
There’s also private hot air balloon rides, onsite yoga sessions, meditation and massage. Plus, the Gold Coast’s famed beaches are only an hour away (and Brisbane 90 minutes).
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