The Race That Stops The Nation

Every year, on the first Tuesday of November, Australians stop everything to celebrate the event of the year, the Melbourne Cup. The Melbourne Cup is literally a 3 minute horse race, but really it’s a formal affair where men get dressed up in pin-striped suits and woman wear edgy fascinators and spring fashions straight from the runway.

In Melbourne festivities take place for an entire week and Australians who live in Victoria get the day off to celebrate. Unfortunately, the rest of Australia doesn’t get a day off but they find a way to celebrate anyways! Since this was my first year celebrating the Melbourne Cup, my friend Tisha and I decided to celebrate here in the Gold Coast by dressing up and going to one of the luncheon events hosted in our neighbourhood.

Not realizing that The Melbourne Cup is a giant event all over Australia, we didn’t buy our tickets in advance but were very lucky to secure last minute tickets to The Lake, which is a beautiful restaurant that sits on Lake Orr by my house. We had a three course meal but I was basically too scared to eat most of my food and ended up having a liquid lunch and dessert, which was fine by me.

The Melbourne Cup is the one day a year where people are allowed to gamble in places without licenses. We participated in a lucky dip and bet on two horses each. I drew a favourite horse, Fame Game, who ended up being a huge disappointment to most of Australia, but still a winner in my eyes. I also got Peppermint, who was not expected to do well and didn’t. Regardless of our bad gambling luck, Michelle Payne became the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup, making history, and Tisha was successful in winning the best hat competition!

Overall celebrating the Melbourne Cup was another great Australian experience and a great excuse to get dressed up and wear a funny hat! If you love fashion then you need to put the Melbourne Cup on your travel bucket list immediately.