Wichita impresses Australian travel writers

The Midwest in general and Wichita in particular may not always have the best — or the most accurate — reputations, but once people have been here, they certainly seem to be easily persuaded about the area’s charms.

Take Australia natives Julia Corderoy and her boyfriend, Richard Laycock, who are writers who have been living in New York since January.

They visited Kansas and Oklahoma this week for a travel story for News.com.au.

“I was embarrassed to say I assumed Oklahoma and Kansas . . . were going to be sort of these backwoods hick towns, a bit slow and, like, just county and boring but . . . I’ve been pleasantly proven wrong,” Corderoy says.

She and Laycock like the Old West touches in both states.

“It’s still very rich and very much a part of who you guys are, but then you do have the cool restaurants and the cool bars and, like, hipster bowling alleys,” Corderoy says.

The two spent five days in Oklahoma and only one day in Kansas.

“I was running late to everything because everyone had so much to say and tell me about,” Corderoy says.

She says she’ll do more on her next trip, which she’s already planning.

“Oh, we’ve already spoken about it,” Corderoy says.

“I could, like, live in Wichita tomorrow,” she says. “It’s such a hipster city.”

Laycock agrees.

“It’s like a little Portland,” he says.

“I just had like a country town with a Main Street in mind. . . . I didn’t expect anything.”

Corderoy says she and Laycock are hardly the only ones who mistakenly thought that way.

“It’s funny how some Americans on the East Coast think that,” she says.

Her story may help change that. We’ll let you know when it’s published.

This story was originally published November 15, 2018 at 2:54 PM.