Jet-set Auckland mayor Len Brown and his office burned through $159,000 on travel in the year to November - five times more than the year before.
The 450 per cent increase is part of more than $3.5 million of ratepayers' money spent in its second year, equivalent to almost $10,000 a day. Travel costs did not include the cost of running the mayor's car.
Total costs were up 8.3 per cent from the $3.23m spent the year before and also did not include the mayor's own pay.
Other increases include $2m spent on paying the mayor's staff, up 15.4 per cent.
Councillor Cameron Brewer blasted Brown for "going around assuring people that he's supposedly prudent" when the cost of his own office was increasing.