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Melbourne is in the land of Oz, this we know. Apparently, though, it is in fact the Emerald City. Certainly, for the moment anyway, the entire place has gone green.
Wicked, the musical prequel to The Wizard of Oz, has opened in Melbourne's Regent Theatre on Collins St and has taken over the city. The Wicked brand's vibrant shade of apple green is everywhere - trams, billboards, building facades and railway stations. It's a fantastic, world-class show that is defying tradition by planning to set up shop in Melbourne for at least 18 months, rather than upping sticks and moving around Australia's other event cities as previous shows have done.
What that means for Melbourne is that the show, which has opened in the city after highly successful runs on Broadway and London's West End, becomes another string in the city's increasingly large bow of cultural tourist attractions. And as the show, hugely complicated as it is to stage, is unlikely to reach New Zealand shores any time soon, thousands of Kiwi musical theatre fans are likely to make a Wicked pilgrimage to this emerald city.
A Wicked performance will take care of one night in Melbourne, but how else to spend your time? Get inside the city Melbourne, with its myriad alleys, lanes and sidestreets is bursting with hidden secrets waiting to be discovered. For the visitor it can often feel that for every treasure you find, there are many other better ones you're missing out on. What you need is a little local knowledge.
Anybody who is new to the city, or who thinks they have the place sorted, should sign up for a Hidden Secrets tour. Fiona Sweetman knows pretty much everything there is to know about Melbourne, particularly in and around the nooks and crannies of the CBD.
Her flagship tour is the Lanes and Arcades, which is a three-hour walk through the maze of small connecting streets that make up central Melbourne.
Along the way your guide, often Sweetman herself, points out all those hidden places - including bars, shops, art and galleries - that Melbournites know all about but which visitors can easily miss.
Sweetman runs other tours that cater for many interests. Her latest, starting at the end of this month, is A Vintage Outing, designed to take lovers of all things retro on a road trip around the city's best vintage clothing stores. There's also a sommeliers tour for food-lovers.
But the one that will really open your eyes and makes you love Melbourne just a little bit more is the Art and Design tour.
Starting outside the National Design Centre in Federation Square, always worth a visit itself, the tour then winds its way to famous Hosier Lane.
The lane is really the home of the street art that now pops up all over the city - a claim to fame that's causing Hosier Lane some problems. Street art is now legal in the lane, which means every teen with a marker pen is adding his tag to the walls - often over fairly incredible works of art.
Nevertheless, the lane is definitely worth a visit - it's always changing and will give you a new perspective on what street art can achieve; from the sublime multi-layered stencils to quirky "knitter litter" cosies for the street bollards.
The Art and Design tour also takes in great design-focused shops, such as e.g.etal for jewellery, and tiny hole-in-the-wall art spaces with regularly changing exhibitions you'd walk straight past if you hadn't been told they were there.
If you're wandering on your own, other great spots for street art include Rutledge Lane, Caledonian Lane and Union Lane.
Art history Once the Art and Design tour has whetted your appetite, there are many ways to feed your hunger for art in Melbourne.
One of the best places to start is the National Gallery of Victoria, just a short walk across the river along St Kilda Rd from Flinders St Station. The gallery's lead winter exhibition, running until October 5, is Art Deco 1910-1939.
It's a fascinating and extremely comprehensive collection of pieces from around the world covering the history and explosion of Art Deco design in art, furnishing, fashion (including some gorgeous pieces of Cartier jewellery and beautiful Chanel gowns) and architecture.
And if fashion fans make it to Melbourne before the end of this month the gallery also has the Black In Fashion: Mourning to Night exhibition, which traces the significance of the colour black in clothing from the 19th century onwards.
Shop till you drop It's impossible to visit Melbourne and not buy shoes.
Trust me. You'll see I'm right. But it's not just the shoes that are enticing. This city world famous for its retail opportunities.
If you're at the National Gallery you can start right there as the gift shop is great. If it's Sunday, once you're done at the NGV, right next door outside the Arts Centre there's an excellent art and craft market.
The central city, particularly around Collins and Bourke streets is renowned for their shopping - especially great if you want chain stores and Australian mainstream labels you can't find here. And if you're after something tasty don't miss the David Jones foodhall.
Other favourites in this part of the city are Smitten Kitten for foxy undies, Kinky Gerlincky for quirky fashion and the gorgeous Scanlan & Theodore when you want to look extra swish.
Chapel St is another shopping mecca - one long street of many of the chain stores and local labels. If you want something a little less mainstream however, head to Brunswick St in Fitzroy, (tram routes 55 and 19).
Shopping here is a little more like the kind of thing you'd find in Auckland's K Rd or Wellington's Cuba St - only more so. There's lots of vintage and retro clothing if that floats your boat, and many boutique jewellery stores for those easily distracted by shiny things.
The best way to see it is just start at one end head south until you hit Gertrude St, wander around there as well, then head back down Brunswick St the other way. Bring your credit card, you'll need it.
Get fed and watered As famous as it is for shopping, Melbourne is just as famous for its food and coffee and if you're in Brunswick St that's as good a place as any to find the best of it.
If you want a hint of high tea try the gorgeously classy Madame Sou Sou, but elsewhere in Brunswick St you'll find everything from scrummy souvlaki to great wine bars.
Back in town there are any number of options. If you're spotting street art in Hosier Lane you must try the tapas at MoVida, which also makes its home there. The famous restaurant has just opened a second small space next door to help offset the queues that were always evident outside the main restaurant.
And if you want something fairly special, nearby in Flinders St is The Press Club, named for the former newspaper building it occupies.
The menu, by George Calombaris, is modern Greek and spectacular. And if you want the full, possibly life-changing experience try the six-course degustation.
For chocolate of any kind head to KoKo Black in Royal Arcade, and to experience the work of a Kiwi in Melbourne try Attica in Ripponlea, where former Taranaki chef Ben Shewry has been named Australian Gourmet Traveller's best new talent.
For something a little more low key, there are two great places to eat that also somehow represent the spirit of Melbourne.
The first is Section 8 in Chinatown. What was once an old carpark was quickly transformed - with just two shipping containers and some wooden seats - into a vibrant Korean restaurant.
It was meant to be temporary until the land was snapped up; it's been there two years.
The other great find is Curtin House at 252 Swanston St. It's a seven-storey Art Nouveau heritage building, now home to a different restaurant, bar or retail space on each level, all the way to the Rooftop Bar and Cinema. A vertical mall, or lane, if you will. The tenants of Curtin House include Cookie, a beer hall and a delicious Thai restaurant on the first floor, live music venue The Toff in Town on level two, the fantastic Metropolis bookstore on three, as well as fashion boutiques and small businesses.
And the Rooftop Bar is the perfect place from which to pause, have a drink and admire the city from above, having fully explored it at ground level.
Kerri Jackson flew to Melbourne courtesy of Tourism Victoria and Qantas.
