In January 2019, I spent about 2.5 weeks in Australia, built around one thing: the Australian Open in Melbourne. The weather was blistering hot for most of it. It was still well worth it.
The rest of the trip grew outward from the tennis: the city itself, a couple of days on the Great Ocean Road, and then Tasmania, the island state to the south.
Why plan a trip around a tennis tournament?
Because it was the main highlight. The Australian Open is the first of the 4 Grand Slams each year, held over the last 2 weeks of January, and I got to see the legendary players in person.
It is nicknamed “the happy slam”, and it draws bigger crowds than any of the other Grand Slams.
What is Melbourne like?
Melbourne sits at the head of Port Phillip Bay, and it is Australia’s second-largest city and the capital of Victoria. It has a reputation as the country’s cultural capital, with its Victorian-era buildings, its cafés and laneways, and a population of about 5 million that is mad about sport.
That last part is not a cliché. In the same city in the same month, you can have the tennis on one side of the river and a cricket ground a short walk away on the other.
The fairy penguins of Phillip Island
About 2 hours from the city is Phillip Island, where little penguins, the smallest penguins in the world, come ashore at dusk. People sit in rows on the beach and wait, and as it gets dark, small groups of them waddle out of the surf and up the sand to their burrows.
Is the Great Ocean Road worth the drive?
Yes, if you give it time. I spent a couple of days on it, and that was about right.
The road runs along the south-west coast of Victoria, and it was built by soldiers back from the First World War, as a work project and a memorial, and finished in 1932. The core stretch runs for about 243 km, along cliffs, surf beaches and small towns.
The famous stop is the 12 Apostles, a group of tall limestone stacks standing in the sea off the cliffs. (There were never 12 of them, and the sea has knocked over a few since.) Between the viewpoints, I spent a lot of the time just chilling on the beaches.
Why go to Tasmania?
Tasmania is the smallest of Australia’s 6 states, an island across the Bass Strait from the mainland. Most of it is mountains and forest, and much of that sits inside national parks, which is why it feels so empty after Melbourne.
These were my highlights:
- The lavender fields, in bloom in January, purple in every direction.
- Wineglass Bay, the curved white beach on the east coast you see on every Tasmania postcard.
- The fruit and oyster farms, where you eat at the source.
- A whisky distillery at Sullivan’s Cove, on the waterfront in Hobart.
- Bruny Island, just south of Hobart, and the lighthouse at Cape Bruny at its southern tip.
How did the trading fit in?
Australia in January is about 3 hours ahead of Singapore. That puts the US market open at about 1.30 in the morning in Melbourne, and the close at about 8, so a check over breakfast, after the close, fits the day.
That is the whole point of a routine that takes about 15 minutes a day. I did end up taking a couple of trades during the trip.
I wrote up how that routine works on the road, the watchlist, the alerts and the time zones, in how I trade while travelling.
Have you been to the Australian Open? Would you plan a trip around a sporting event, or does that sound like too much tennis? Let me know in the comments.
All my other trips are on the travel log, country by country, and more photos are on Instagram, @iamrecneps.