Melbourne is flooded with speakeasy bars hidden behind the city’s buildings. But the Store Room in St Kilda is one tucked-away spot we’re glad we found. Getting into this barbershop-turned-bar is part of the fun. The number two button on an old phone opens the key to the cosy, eclectic cocktail bar furnished with collectables.
Memorabilia, including surfboards, old ladders, oars, vintage mirrors and remote-controlled aeroplanes, is scattered across the walls and ceiling, while the bar is stocked with hand-blown glassware from Mexico. Carrying the Prohibition-style into its cocktail menu, Store Room offers a small wine list and an extensive range of spirits including whiskey, vodka and gin.
Juliet Melbourne is a place that celebrates three of our favourite things: cheese, wine and women. There’s an exciting wine list featuring only female winemakers, and most of the drops are Australian, too. The aforementioned cheese comes in the form of Juliet Melbourne’s signature dish, the raclette, its melty goodness scraped over smashed kipflers, sourdough and, for omnivores, proscuitto, accompanied by a decent pile of cornichons. Order it and thank us later.
There are also charcuterie plates and other seasonal dishes designed for sharing. In typical Melbourne fashion, this intimate bar is tucked down a laneway. Just follow your nose to Little Bourke Street where the mouthwatering aromas will lead you in the right direction.
Hidden within a mini forest in the rolling green hills around the North Island’s Lake Taupo is the wonderfully quaint Whakaipo Lodge. With just two suites, it’s more a luxury bed and breakfast than a full-scale lodge. Head out for the day – there’s all manner of hiking, mountain biking, rafting and fishing during the warmer months, and skiing at Mt Ruapehu in winter – or stick around to wander the grounds and feed the sheep in the back paddock.
Owners Garth and Angie London have created a welcoming five-star experience that has a soothing charm. The best way to end a day’s exploration, of course, is to settle in by Whakaipo Lodge’s open fire with a glass of pinot noir.
If you are a monogamous wine lover – and by that we mean in love with just one region – you are truly missing out. Given how easy it is to quickly travel by air between Sydney, a stone’s throw away from the Hunter Valley, and Melbourne, on the doorstep of the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula, you would be crazy to not experience the flavours and possibilities of all three regions in a wine lovers’ mini-getaway exploring the east coast.
WHY EXPLORE BOTH STATES?
Wine not? The Hunter Valley is known for its hot climate, lighter-bodied reds – think shiraz that resembles a light, low-tannin pinot – and tangy semillons. If you believe chardonnay is out of fashion and not worth your time, think again. The Hunter produces surprisingly light, fruit-driven styles and more traditional but subtle oaky styles, like those delicious, vanilla-like French varieties.
The Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula, meanwhile, are cool climate regions. Again, pinot noir and chardonnay are signature varieties, but with distinct differences. Reds are lighter again, with a fine tannin structure, and the whites, especially the chardonnay, have a brighter, fresher, acid-driven style to them resembling early harvest stone fruits or apple. Again, it’s a fresh, exciting and modern style that’s sure to please.
HUNTER VALLEY
The Hunter Valley is one of Australia’s best-known wine regions with a fascinating history dating back to the mid-1800s. It will take you around two-and-a-half hours by road if you are leaving from the centre of Sydney (about the same from Sydney airport), but it’s certainly worth it.
While you can get there and back in one day, with enough time for some wine tasting and lunch, most Sydneysiders know the best way to experience the Hunter is at a leisurely pace. Drive there, enjoy all the wine it has to offer, then make the return the next day. With great accommodation options on offer – hostels, caravan parks, country cottages on Airbnb, luxury resorts – there is definitely something for everyone.
The area boasts more than 150 wineries and produces more styles of the good stuff than you could possibly drink in a lifetime. Head to some of the 45-plus cellar doors open to the public, mostly in the Pokolbin area.
With so much to choose from it really makes sense to look into joining a tour with a local guide. The cellar doors and attractions are quite spread out and can be tricky to navigate since phone and GPS reception can be patchy. Whether you are after an experience that focuses on wineries or would prefer a snapshot that also includes craft breweries and distilleries creating vodka and liqueurs, you will find a variety of tour options to tempt.
If you are short on time, here are a few options showcasing the best of the region.
Capercaillie Wines
You won’t find a warmer welcome or more knowledgeable sommeliers than at Scottish-inspired Capercaillie Wines. You’ll find it hard to walk away without a delicious dry rosé with candy-like notes of strawberries and cream or a medium-bodied chardonnay that brings to mind a vanilla custard. Try the Shimmering Chambourcin, a sparkling, slightly sweet red with hints of maraschino cherries and black forest cake.
Ernest Hill Wines
On Pokolbin Hill, you’ll find Ernest Hill Wines, steeped in family tradition and a passion for the grape. Father-and-son team Ross and Jason Wilson make the wine that has captured the hearts and the palates of many a wine fan and visitor to the area. The Chicken Shed Chardonnay – don’t say it too fast after a few wines – has a lightly oaked character with melon hints and, of course, is perfect with chicken. The Cracklin’ Rosé has distinct cherry notes rather than the usual strawberries and cream, but the real treat is the family’s dessert wines. Their Luna Rouge and Luna Spark are distinct from most dessert wines thanks to their only slightly sweet character – neither is thick or syrupy – and slight carbonation. Sometimes you even get a surprise pop when you open the bottle.
Wandin Wines
At the top of one of the most picturesque hills in Lovedale, overlooking the endless rows of vines and a troop of kangaroos, you will find Wandin Wines‘ cellar door and restaurant. One of the most exciting aspects of dining here is you can combine a tasting experience and lunch. The tasting-plates lunch features four chef-selected, mini versions of the mains paired to four of the winery’s drops, with an introduction from a sommelier at the commencement of your meal. Finish off with a glass of gorgeous pink moscato in the cellar door.
YARRA VALLEY
Victoria’s Yarra Valley wine region sits only 51 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD, making it the perfect destination for a wining and dining day trip. The region features some of the country’s most-awarded wineries, distilleries, breweries, dairies and restaurants.
Yileena Park
Carved into a hillside at the base of the Christmas Hills is inviting Yileena Park. With its endless views over the Steels Creek mountain range and one of the warmest welcomes in the valley, you’ll fall in love with the wines and atmosphere of this humble cellar door. You’ll find a premium selection of drops here, most of which are aged for a minimum of four years before release, with the reserve range aged for six years before becoming available at the cellar door. There’s also a delicious assortment of treats available for purchase, including olives, cheese, mustard and olive oil, all of which have been smoked using old oak wine barrels.
Trattoria d’Soumah
Authentic Northern Italian cuisine – that’s what the kitchen at Trattoria d’Soumah creates for its returning guests. With a menu that’s designed to suit every taste – choose from the likes of vegetarian orecchiette, duck ragu tagliatelle, swordfish caponata and slow braised lamb – it’ll be hard to tear yourself away from the table. For something more casual, there’s also a great selection of delicious wood-fired pizza. The captivating views over the vineyard can be enjoyed from every corner of the restaurant, making it an ideal spot to while away an afternoon.
MORNINGTON PENINSULA
Only 70 kilometres from the city of Melbourne, the Mornington Peninsula isn’t as well known to out-of-towners as the Yarra Valley, but it’s just as good. In fact, it’s the place to be for Melbourne-based food and wine enthusiasts. The added bonuses here are the beaches and rugged coastline, so you can take in some of the sights and really make a day of it.
Ocean Eight
Heading down the driveway to the immaculately landscaped property at Ocean Eight, you know you’re in for a treat. The manicured vineyards and perfect English garden are the envy of other wineries on the peninsula. The cellar door, winery and underground barrel room are custom built to produce the best wines and experience. The wines here are equally as amazing with a premium range of the Mornington Peninsula’s staple classics: pinot gris, chardonnay and pinot noir. These are some of the best wines on the Mornington Peninsula, so they aren’t cheap, but it’s so worth taking a souvenir from your day home.
Merricks Creek
Driving into this property, beneath the willows draped over the driveway, you come out from the shade and into one of the most beautifully secluded vineyards on the peninsula. The winemakers here are fanatical about their pinot noir and it shows in the range of small batch, single vineyard wines. It’s a real family affair at Merricks Creek, with father and son as the winemakers and front-of-house team, and mum and aunty in the kitchen creating small plates to perfectly match the wines. The food here is an undiscovered gem and one of our favourite spots to dine. There’s a great range starting with cheeses, pates and terrines, moving onto hot dishes like slow-cooked lamb and meatballs, and finishing with some delicious desserts, including a crowd-pleasing deconstructed tiramisu.
These suggestions are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the possibilities when you visit the Hunter Valley, Mornington Peninsula or Yarra Valley. So don’t count your future travel bucket list as full until you include an east coast Aussie wine adventure in the mix. Your tastebuds will thank you for it.
Within the Taharua Valley of New Zealand’s North Island sits Poronui Lodge’s Luxury Safari Camp. Ride in by horse to back country isolation and total digital detox (you won’t find WiFi out here), where these two-person canvas-roofed tents are stocked with comforts like hot water, flushing toilets and gourmet food cooked by a private chef (self cooking option also available).
Situated on the banks of the Mohaka River, its cascading sounds your night-time melody, a crackling campfire and star-filled sky will light up your evenings. You’ll also have full access to the Stables facilities (sauna, steam and massage rooms), and Poronui’s multiple experiences, which includes hunting, hiking, horse-riding, mountain biking and heli-fishing.
Make your dream Insta feed a reality with a stay at Anantara Dhigu Resort on the South Malé Atoll. This mind-blowingly beautiful spot boasts all the classic Maldivian elements that have made the island paradise so famous. We’re talking overwater bungalows, crystal clear waters, bikes to go cruising and enormous standalone tubs with ocean views.
There are also multiple dining options (Terrazzo, which serves ridiculously good Italian, is a standout), a spa centre and enough cool activities – swimming with sharks, anyone? – to lure you from your poolside sunbed for a couple of hours. The hardest part? Leaving.
It’s true. You do need to go via Auckland first, but we think it’s worth it to stop in French Polynesia on the way to the USA with Air Tahiti Nui. Papeete is the main city on the island of Tahiti, gateway to more than a hundred sun-kissed drops in the ocean – perfect if you’ve got time on your side – and an intriguing taste of France in a tropical paradise.
Visit the Gauguin Museum, enjoy the local seafood cooked with Gallic flair, and spend some time outdoors. Even better, head over the isthmus at Taravao on the other side of the island to get to Tahiti Iti (literally Little Tahiti). There you’ll find traditional Polynesian villages, amazing waterfalls and sea caves, and excellent hiking. Oh, and it’s also home to one of the world’s most famous surf breaks, Teahupoo, although you should only brave it if you’re better than average on a board.
The Cumberland in Manly is quintessential Australia boutique deli by day, top-secret underground speakeasy by night. There’s a lot to love about this Manly bar that is accessible through a vintage 1920s fridge door and down a spiral staircase. The 75-seater bar radiates old-world sophistication with a leather banquette, hard-carved sandstone blocks and antique brass beer taps.
The carefully curated cocktail list features drinks inspired by native Manly botanicals (the Dandelion Espresso and Lilly Pilly Sour are just two examples), but it’s the remarkable 250-strong whiskey collection that will force more than a few return visits. Platters of cheese and charcuterie from the deli upstairs quell any need to emerge into the world for dinner.
Our van comes to a screeching halt and, for the first time in about three hours, I unclench my jaw. It’s been that way to save my teeth from rattling together. My lower back aches, my nostrils are full of dust and DEET, and my body is jittering with nerves as we leave our vehicle and push through a shroud of dry palms hanging over a makeshift entrance.
A group of villagers is on the other side to greet us, their smiles wide and so full of crimson betel nut it’s difficult to see where their gums start and stop. At least I can tell they’re excited to see us. Secretly, after what I’ve already been told, I’m hoping the experience will be over quickly.
But before we even arrive at Safanaga Village, a remote and isolated settlement just outside Goroka in Papua New Guinea’s Central Highlands, we’ve been told by folks from Papua New Guinea’s Tourism Promotion Authority (PNGTPA) we’re the first group of western journalists to travel this road between the two main highland cities of Goroka and Mount Hagen. While this is significant given it’s considered one of the most treacherous stretches of highway on the planet, this fact almost instantly pales into insignificance. On the village’s riverbank, I sit aghast as waves of human blood and bile disappear downstream.
The Keeya people of Safanaga Village are one of just a few clans in this region still practising a confronting bloodletting initiation ritual. It happens regularly, but the PNGTPA reps say fewer than 20 tourists a year witness the tradition that involves young men removing the dirty or impure blood – they allegedly inherit it from their mothers at birth – in order to aid their transformation into men.
I watch in complete disbelief as three young brothers, Apune, Ansley and Yapo, use a range of makeshift bush apparatus to inflict unspeakable pain on themselves.
Yapo is the first to start the ritual. He rolls leaves into two tight wands, so they’re of a similar length and appearance to a cigar. Once he’s done, he repeatedly and violently pushes them up into his nostrils like two pistons firing rapidly in a car engine. Yapo, along with our group, is visibly distressed.
Ansley then hands a tiny bow and arrow over to his little brother, sticks out his tongue as if it’s a bullseye and, in rapid succession, a glass-tipped arrow is fired into it. After about 20 times it’s obvious the pain is almost unbearable.
“This [is] the most dangerous [part],” one of them says to our group in broken English, just as the remaining brother, Apune, begins to swallow a two-metre length of cane.
In a few seconds, something as thick as but less flexible than a skipping rope miraculously disappears down Apune’s throat and into his body. He calmly gags before it emerges again. I have to look away. Needless to say the entire experience renders me speechless and emotionally broken. It’s in this moment I realise that, despite being only 150 kilometres from mainland Australia, I’m in another world.
In reality, however, what we are watching is just a show. Sure, it’s a complex celebration of tradition, history, storytelling and ritualistic coming of age, but today these types of experiences are a way for these tribes to keep centuries-old traditions alive as well as attract much-needed tourist dollars.
When you look at Papua New Guinea on a map it’s hard to fully grasp the sheer remoteness in which villagers like the Safanaga live. Picture a tablecloth laid flat then pinch it in the middle and bring it to an elevation of 4,509 metres. That’s the height of PNG’s tallest peak, Mt Wilhelm in the Central Highlands. Their home, along with millions of others, is perched precariously in these fog-draped mountains.
And in a region with more than 800 different ethnic groups and tribes, despite the pressures of the western world being firmly wedged against it, the highlands still remain a buffet of sensory tribal traditions where visitors like us are welcomed with open arms.
We’re visiting the region on the eve of the sixtieth anniversary of the famous Hagen Show, an annual sing-sing (the word means gathering) featuring the coming-together of dozens of tribal groups in the town’s central stadium across a single weekend. It’s an opportunity for tourists
to witness a melting pot of cultures all in one place at the same time.
Yet a mere weekend of watching these traditions unfold behind a fence as just another white-faced spectator is far less enjoyable than taking the long road between Goroka and Mount Hagen and crafting a remote experience to visit hidden tribes and witness their traditions along the way. There’s something much more raw and unscripted about seeing these take place in context, as if you’re being invited to peer inside a cultural time capsule with the implicit permission of a village elder.
Like the famous Australian Leahy family, who led the first expeditions into the highlands during the 1930s in search of gold, each new day
feels like another scene from the acclaimed documentary, First Contact.
THE ASARO MUDMEN
We start with the most popular tribal group in the region. They’re so popular, in fact, I’m sitting in the exact same spot as actor Morgan Freeman, who was here a few weeks ago filming his latest Netflix series.
Its notoriety in no way makes our personalised visit any less spine-tingling.
There’s an eerie silence before a horn sounds in the distance. Smoke wafts over the village’s dedicated performance ground and an Asaro Mudman scout, with a young boy in tow, leads out to “check for enemies”. Within just a few seconds dozens of ghostly mudmen wielding clubs and bows break through the smoke in a frenzy, bombarding us from every angle.
Their performance is tantalising, their movements deliberately intimidating. With each drumbeat, I try harder to peer through the holes in their masks – some of them weigh up to 15 kilograms each – to catch a glimpse of their eyes just to make sure I’m still dealing with humans.
GORUMEKA CLAN
“You can help expose my country, my village, my community to the rest of the world to help us keep our traditions,” leader of the Gorumeka clan, Robert Gotokave, tells me as he cradles his machete. We’re on an hour-long hike to the top of Mount Gorupuka.
Gorupuka was once a World War II staging post for Australian artillery and Gotokave’s grandfather was a Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel who ran supplies up the mountain to fuel wveary soldiers.
“I’m one of the sons of soldier men, too,” he says with a smile, and for a moment we share a special bond as I tell him my grandfather was stationed not far from Port Moresby at the same time.
But the mountain is so much more to Gotokave than simply a relic of a long-ago war. It’s a sacred place where his elders have held pre-battle sacrifices for generations. The summit is accessed only by a secret cave and I must leave the branch of a local fern at the ‘door’ before I’m allowed to enter or risk never being allowed to leave.
As Gotokave finally takes us back to his village, the other men are already dressed in their post-war celebration garb. Yet this dance, known as the mokomoko, is overtly sexual and phallic.
There’s thrusting, grunting and suggestive woven devices worn around waists which are, we’re told, designed to arouse the interest
of any female onlookers.
THE SKELETON DANCERS
A few hours up the road in Mindima Village you hear the shrieking before anything else. While the sound is horrific enough, it’s when you see the skeleton performers the real fear sets in.
Their faces are intricately decorated for our arrival and, in terrifying detail, they re-create the story of a monster who lives in the mountains above their village and who is famed for stealing and eating Mindima children.
KORUL VILLAGE
Before arriving in Mount Hagen you first pass through the breathtaking Chimbu province, which rises steeply out of the Asaro Valley.
In Korul Village I meet Batman, his name an indicator of both his size and stature. He’s huge, like most Highlanders I’ve met so far, and as he leads me over the crest of the hill where his village sits I understand why – you need to either grow wings or build muscle just to live here.
My journey through Korul is like visiting a modern history museum. Village life fans out in front of me and I look out across the valley. Batman says there’s as many as 3,000 to 4,000 people living here, yet I remain focussed on just four people at the end of a small clearing.
I’m introduced to village chief Bomal and his three wives. He sits proudly on a log, munching on a piece of fruit and surrounded by his concubines. Polygamy is still widely practised in the highlands, as too are ‘bride prices’, with pigs used as the most common form of currency.
The chief shouts angrily for water and wife number two hastily scurries off to appease him. Once again, as I felt in Safanaga a few days earlier, I’m uncomfortable and can’t help but look away.
In the space of just a few days I’ve witnessed bloodletting, phallic sex dances, polygamy and skeleton spirit rituals, but on the road to Mount Hagen in Papua New Guinea’s highlands that excruciating feeling of unease at every corner is all just part of the experience.
Lakes of bubble-gum pink seem to be something of an Australian phenomenon. Apart from the Insta-famous pond in Melbourne’s Westgate Park that turns pink when salt levels peak, the rest can be found in Western Australia. Lake Hillier is one of the most famous, and the only one that remains pink all year long. The colour is caused by a microalgae called Dunaliella salina, which is found in water that’s highly saline.
Lake Hillier is located on Middle Island in the Recherche Archipelago, near Esperance, and is best enjoyed on a scenic flight with Goldfields Air Services. That way you can truly appreciate the juxtaposition of the lake, which is the same shade as Pepto-Bismol, and the deep blue of the ocean, separated only by a thin stretch of scrub and white sand.
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