Melbourne

Fixated with constructing the best points itinerary beheld by all of mankind, I forgot common sense in making my booking from Melbourne to Wellington. I elected to use Avios to fly business on Qantas. The fare should've been 40,000 points and a nominal amount in tax. Instead after hours arguing with terrible British Airways customer service, I ended up paying $260 which included improper fuel surcharges.

If first you don't succeed...blame the terrible pho chefs in Darwin. After that horrendous pho experience, I was beginning to wonder if I knew what pho was.

Are you a fan of tennis? I am not. I've tried but the most fun I've had playing tennis is on Nintendo.

My fascination with Hungry Jack's began w‎hen I visited Sydney in 2013 (see The $77,000 Trip Heard Round the World).

Aussie airports are awesome. Boarding is 20 minutes before departure for domestic flights, yet somehow the flights take off on time.

On the flight from Darwin to Melbourne, alcohol was not included leading me to rethink my Avios valuation (see Burn Those Avios!).

How do you measure the value of Avios? Most will assign a dollar value of 1.5 cents. From Sydney to Darwin, I flew business for 20k Avios and took advantage of the never-ending shiraz.

Nothing to see here. Time to go to New Zealand.

You have a few options from Melbourne Airport. The popular one is the SkyBus which costs $19.50AUD.

I booked this flight in the literal sense of the 11th hour. Was 33k Lifemiles‎ worth it? Let's find out.