Our last leg of the trip was really exciting because we were going to go to the Great Barrier Reef (while staying on Hamilton Island) and the Australian Open! Our excitement quickly faded as we saw the weather forecast in Hamilton Island.
It was way worse than we expected. Torrential Downpour might be an understatement. We learned that summer is the rainy season for the reef and the worst time to go. Though my fiancé wanted to explore the island walking around in the rain was not my idea of a fun time. In addition, because it’s an island there was only one of everything. One coffee shop, one grocery store etc.
For rainy days they had limited activities including six ping pong tables for the entire island and bowling for 35 dollars per person. We were definitely ready to get off the island, and when we checked out we found that we had missed the shuttle that goes to the airport twice a day. Normally, this would not be a problem, but on this island, there are no taxis and the primary form of transportation is golf carts which you can rent for about $100/day if they are in stock.
We were left to take the green line bus which drops you off a 6-minute walk from the airport. Typically, a 6-minute walk is fine, unless there’s a torrential downpour outside. Luckily, our shuttle driver felt bad for us and arranged for another bus to pick us up for the last leg of the journey. We made it to the best part of the island. The airport. You may think we’re kidding, but we had one of the best Australian meals there. We had chicken curry pies and they were superb, along with a fantastic Chai Latte.
It was pouring at the time of our flight and the plane barely landed after attempting an approach twice (my fiancé has a background in flying and was giving me a play-by-play). There was no jetbridge and each flight attendant on the plane had to manually check our ticket so we stood out in the pouring rain with no umbrella for about 5 min and were completely soaked.
Coming from an operational background and knowing this weather is predictable, I would make so many improvements to this process…. my fiancé got up and changed his clothes in the bathroom, but I preferred to be miserable and not change. Since we love Australia I wasn’t too bummed out because I knew we would be back and have other opportunities to get back to the reef.
We planned on exploring the city and only going to the Australian Open for one day we ended up going every day. We still need to go to the French Open to hit all the slams, but here’s a comparison of the qualities of the ones we’re been to.
| US Open | Australian Open | Wimbledon | |
| Cost | A gazillion dollars | A reasonable amount of money and a student discount | You’re just lucky to get a ticket |
| View | The players look like ants in the nosebleed seats | There are only good seats and better seats. Visibility is fantastic | Great view |
| Ketchup | I don’t remember paying for ketchup | They make you pay for ketchup and it’s hard to open. It also did not taste good. | I did not use ketchup |
| Drinks | Cool signature drink (honey duce) with a cool collector’s cup | No signature drink | The best drink I’ve ever had in my life (PIMS) |
| Activities | None that I remember | A ball cave, test your serve speed, a giant kids area, a DDR-style tennis game | None that I remember |
| Swag | Didn’t look | Absurd prices and not much selection | Don’t remember |
| Star Players seen | Serena, Nadal, Djokovic Nadal | Nadal, Murray, Coco Guaff, Tiafoe, Jessica Pegula | Patrick McEnroe in exhibition doubles (John’s brother that no one cares about) |
In Melbourne, we stayed at two hotels: the Grand Hyatt because we had a credit card discount and the Hilton Little Queen’s street. Our first hotel was amazing. It had the nicest hotel gym I have ever been to and I’m assuming it is because players stay there every year for the Open. Kia sponsored the Open and had dedicated cars drive players, so we saw a couple of players get in and out of the cars, and a lot of people with Aussie Open badges.
Our next hotel was not as grand but it did have amazing food perks. my fiancé got Diamond status for Hilton when the requirement was cut in half (60 nights to 30 nights) and the last month had a bonus wherein each night counted as double (15 nights= 30 nights). It was during the pandemic that in order to enter the US he had to stay in a non-banned country because all of Europe was banned from entering the US. It was a convenient outcome of a really frustrating time in our relationship. All that to say we enjoyed a nice club room with a good dinner and great treats (candy, cookies etc.).
In the times that we did explore the city, we had one amazing brunch and two nice dinners. In times that we did not we had very mediocre food and bad ketchup. We did take one adventure to see a pink lake in a park. We walked for almost an hour and turns out the pictures on google lied, the lake is no longer pink, and had not been pink since 2020. I was not happy. However, I was super excited to go shopping the next day. I saw this display of cool-looking leather good and thought “I want a jacket.” I got the prices and ended up buying three jackets. Similar to European countries, Australia has a tax refund program, but it’s actually run by the government and not a private company, so all of the refund goes to you. The line also moved very quickly.
We wanted to end our time there was a three-chef hat restaurant called Vue de monde. If I could describe the ambiance it farm chic in a very tall building. The food was all quite good, but it was a very dramatic dinner. Trigger warning if you’re squeamish and reading this skip to the next paragraph. Maybe 8 courses in I went to the bathroom and the stall was a bit messy, so I went to catch the door and it slammed on my fingers and caused me to bleed not profusely, but just to demonstrate how heavy this door was. As soon as I got to the table our waiter was about to tell us about cheese, and I started crying and he was very caught off guard. I explained what happened, and they got me ice and a band-aid. It’s been around three weeks and it still hurts, so after talking to one of my friends who is a doctor she said it was likely to be a small fracture. Weird way to end the trip but I still had the time of my life.
We flew premium economy back to the US and got a really great deal. I would highly suggest it because it gives all the perks of business class, just no lie-flat seats. So better snacks, bigger chairs, better dinners, and more attentive attendants. All and all a fantastic experience for my husband and me.
