Sydney, Melbourne, and the country

Australia

Australia holds three arcs in one country. Sydney is Blanche’s city, the harbor light that is not European and undoes her at dusk. Melbourne is Hazel’s, the one she recognizes from the first afternoon. The country pulls them both past every category they arrived with, Uluru and the Great Barrier Reef and the Barossa, and the afternoon a man from near Wodonga calls Blanche the old cheese and Hazel says nothing at all.

Coming soon

Sydney, Blanche’s city

The harbor at dusk, one of the great views she has kept a ranking for
The Australian pharmacy, evaluated with full attention
The Surry Hills coffee, a culture worth respecting
The harbor-view bathroom assessment

Melbourne, Hazel’s city

The laneways, the city she recognizes from the first afternoon
The Melbourne food scene she did not see coming
The Sydney to Melbourne leg, and Hazel’s one word on the rivalry

The country

Uluru, which neither of them tries to find words for
The Great Barrier Reef, the most serious Hazel has been about sunscreen
The Barossa and Margaret River wine
The old cheese moment, three seconds of Hazel’s face and no caption
Wodonga, one word delivered flat

Hotels and Stays

Park Hyatt Sydney, the Opera House view from the bath
Capella Sydney, in the heritage building
The Langham Melbourne
Jackalope, on the Mornington Peninsula
Longitude 131 at Uluru, a bathroom in the desert nobody saw coming

Restaurants and Cafes

Sydney, the Rocks and Surry Hills, and the fish market
Melbourne, Flinders Lane and Fitzroy
Hunter Valley, Barossa, and Margaret River wines
Vegemite, evaluated by Hazel with complete seriousness

Planning

Qantas business class, the pajama piece its own content, with United or American via Los Angeles
Qantas domestic and Virgin Australia for the country legs
Coral Expeditions on the Great Barrier Reef, endorsed on environmental grounds

This hub opens lightly and fills over time.