The Melbourne Cup

I gave up my seat on the No. 8 Toorak streetcar to Joan and Elle in exchange for letting me take their picture. They were on their way to the 150th running of the Melbourne Cup. With a $6 million purse, it is said to be the richest two-mile horse race in the world.

In Melbourne and across Victoria, race day is an official public holiday. What you wear is as important as which horse you bet on. Australians spent up to $30 million on clothes for the big day this year, largely on women's hats.

As usual, women seemed to pay a higher price for fashion in more ways than one. Men wore suits and jackets, women generally wore less despite the 50-degree temps and eventual rain.

 

But some people, like this couple at Flinders Street station in downtown Melbourne, didn't even bother to update their wardrobe. So yesteryear...

While most people were posing and betting at Flemington Racecourse, we headed northeast of Melbourne to the bucolic Yarra Valley wine country. 

Shammu, a local cabbie, drove us from the Lilydale train station to the TarraWarra Winery, a random pick out of Lonely Planet. 

We tasted 10 or so wines -- I lost count -- all made from grapes grown on the estate. They found us a table in the dining room just in time. We needed food to continue the TarraWarra experience.

The duck-and-prune pie was the highlight of my meal. Savory pies seem to be a staple of the Australian diet, available from street vendors and coffee shops all day and night. They usually aren't this fancy, but a still fine tradition. 

 

As promised, Shammu returned a couple of hours later and drove us back to Lilydale for our train to Flinders Street station. He wrote down his name and number for me if you ever find yourself in the Yarra Valley and need a reliable taxi.