Melbourne-Wellington: Paying Cash Saves $
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.
Darwin to Melbourne: 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.
Con-X-ion: How to Get from Melbourne Airport
You have a few options from Melbourne Airport. The popular one is the SkyBus which costs $19.50AUD.
Supernormal: Where to Eat in Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital of food. A worthy representative of this moniker is Supernormal which is located on the famous Flinders Lane.
Vineyard Crawl: My Yarra Valley Wine Tour
Once again, I waited until the last minute to plan an integral part of my itinerary. Originally, I was supposed to go straight from Darwin to Yarra Valley for wine tasting.
Aura Hotel Melbourne: Flinders, Flinders, Flinders!
The US dollar is too strong to justify paying in points in Australia (see Too Cheap for Points, Too Much for Cash: DoubleTree Darwin). My bank account is too weak to pay $120 a night for Holiday Inns.
Trattoria Emilia Melbourne: A 5 Course Lunch, Why Not?
Perhaps you have a great bottle of wine you were supposed to bring home for a special occasion. Perhaps you have the thirsties and do not like to wait. Perhaps you are slightly hungry. If so, and it happens to be a Wednesday, go to Trattoria Emilia.
Pho Flinders Melbourne: Fantastic Pho on Flinders
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.
Australian Open: Amateurs Welcome
Are you a fan of tennis? I am not. I've tried but the most fun I've had playing tennis is on Nintendo.
Trademark Infringement? Hungry Jack’s vs. Burger King
My fascination with Hungry Jack's began when I visited Sydney in 2013 (see The $77,000 Trip Heard Round the World).