We left our motel this cold morning in our preheated EV.

No need to run an engine and fill the veranda with fumes. We hit “Home” as the destination in the navigation, then “Find along route”, coffee. It showed various options along our path. We tapped the “Brew Cart” pin, read the details, then added it as a stop. Neat! It turns out to be just a brew cart. Just coffee. As advertised, I guess. No food. Charging: We charged up the car last night from the destination charger at our motel. Similar to how we’d charge our phones.

When the EV chargers are in the car park of the pie shop, then pies are definitely for…

…lunch. Disappointing to see one of the other EVs occupying a charging park, but not plugged in. Charging: Park the car, plug in, go eat a pie for lunch, unplug, drive off. Super easy. The smell of pies is so much better than the smell of petrol. Over 180kW (briefly) charging speed on our LFP battery was pretty impressive.

A few random jaunts around the Central Coast to catch up with family.

Ettalong Beach, Terrigal, Woy Woy waterfront. Bringing KFC to lunch in the frunk, to keep the smell out of the cabin. Charging: We managed a couple of chargings at Erina Fair, but topped up at our accommodation, using excess solar, and the cheap off peak night rates.

A couple of visits to Erina Fair, while we’ve been on the Central Coast the past few…

…days. Back to our favourite Thai Thyme restaurant for some pineapple fried rice, and Harris Farm for groceries. Even time for a couple of haircuts. Charging: For years, the two Tesla destination chargers at Erina Fair were the only public options around. They are almost always occupied, sometimes ICEd, and difficult to park in. But they are free. We happened across an available spot, a couple of times, and risked the parking, but this might be the last time. Evie Networks has recently opened two charging stations, with four cables, in the next car park. They are fast chargers, but cost to charge. This should make them far more available. The EV signs point you towards them, but fail to mark the last left turn, so you end up wanting to go backwards through the one way section. They are easy for parking, once you know where they are. Unfortunately, they sit out in the rain, so you’ll get a bit wet when plugging in. The Central Coast also has Tesla Superchargers in West Gosford and…

Quick lunch at Heatherbrae's Pies, on our way to drop Mum back at Cessnock.

We swung out through Thornton. One of the many towns with full flood plains. The farmers must have been busy moving livestock and equipment to higher ground. Charging: Several fast charger options around here, but nothing practical exactly at Heatherbrae’s pies. But, we have more than enough charge from a power point at our cabin yesterday.

Time to pack some bodies into the subtrunk! There’s so much room in this thing.

We prepared for our trip today to the NSW Central Coast, via Cessnock. Charging: Charged up to 100% from the power point on the deck of the cabin. More than enough for our journey today, and no need to stop to refuel.

We made the most of the slight break in the weather with a drive out to Blueys/Boomerang…

…Beach, for lunch at Kembali Cafe. We phoned ahead to secure some food before the kitchen closed. Then some pics back at Seal Rocks. Charging: We left our cabin with 100% charge, after leaving the car plugged into to power point on the deck, whenever car has been parked, during the past couple of days.

We often fail to get around to lunch in a town before everything starts to close.

We trekked out to Forster and after a few failed eateries, we happened across this Turkish restaurant which proved to be the find of the week. Lovely people and great food. We hung around the attached dessert shop afterwards and discovered all types of Turkish Delight that we didn’t know existed. Charging: We charged up from a standard power point at our cabin in Seal Rocks. There appear to be a few destination chargers around Forster/Tuncurry, but no fast chargers.

We arrived at Reflections Seal Rocks.

Seal Rocks. Francis joked at reception “We’re here for our sunny holiday” as the rain continued to belt down. It rained most of the time we were there. The room key mocked us with the label “Life is better outside”. But we made the most of it. We played a few rounds of “brain fart” which was frustrating and fun. I drove 3km down the road to Treachery Camp to pick up Amber. It takes a long time to drive along a road that bad. On the first night, we drove to the closest open dinner venue: The Palms Bistro, Smiths Lake. The satay veg curry was yum and great value. Another night, Fran cooked up a delicious mushroom meal for her mother in law! And sent her home with the leftovers 😉. We did a few days trips out, including a snippet of sun. Stay tuned for those. Charging: Given its isolation, we checked before we booked that we could charge at the cabin. Our hosts kindly allowed us to do so, and gave us a cabin with easy access for Mum’s walker. Thank you. On our way back from dinner the…

Stocking up on some groceries in Raymond Terrace, before the final leg of our trip to…

…Seal Rocks. We used the Woolworths app to order ahead for “direct to boot”. Charging: We aim to charge while parked anyway. Raymond Terrace has Tesla Superchargers in the shopping center car park, powered by solar panels that shade the car park. So, it’s the perfect opportunity. In hindsight, I should have parked at the charger, and just wheeled the groceries over, since it took a while for the groceries to appear. After piling the Woollies groceries into the car, we parked at the Supercharger and plugged in, while we walked into the shopping centre to grab a couple of things that Woollies didn’t have. That gave the car time for a top up charge. Shopping done, we took off again – no need to wait until 100%. Once parked between these superchargers, it can be a bit of a stretch to reach the cable from behind the car. And the solar panel roof has gaps, which release targeted rain on you in certain places. Our car’s LFP battery is supposed to do a max of 170kW, but this charger managed…

Taking the scenic route through Wollombi and Laguna, on our way to pick up Mum from…

…Cessnock. Raining. Beautiful countryside. A few years ago, this whole valley suffered major flooding.

On our way out of Bowral this morning, we grabbed a coffee at Coffee Guru Mittagong.

Conveniently located across the road from Evie fast chargers, so we could all be charged up for our long drive to Cessnock and Seal Rocks. Charging: The Tesla’s navigation has the option to route through third party EV chargers. But it misses out on showing a lot of them. To get this one to show, we had to type “Evie” into the navigation, then select it from the list. The navigation is smart enough to even precondition the battery for this destination, but not yet smart enough to include it in the list of chargers. Hopefully a software update will fix this. The Evie Networks chargers have a great “auto charge” feature, where we can just plug in our car and walk away, like we do with Tesla chargers. No tap card, app or faffing required. Since this was our first Evie charging of this new car, however, we needed to use the app, to set up the account details. This also prompted me to remove our old car from our Evie account, so we don’t end up paying for the new owner’s travels. This site…

After our journey from Wagga and Yass, last night we stayed near Bowral at Briars Country…

…Lodge. Nice motel, set on beautiful grounds, complete with buffet breakfast. Our car got its first wash, from a hose next to the parking. Dinner at The Scottish Arms Hotel, Bowral. Driving on today to Cessnock and Seal Rocks. Charging: No EV chargers on site. We’ll charge up while getting coffee on the way out of town.

Stop for a late lunch, in Yass, at Kaffeine 2582.

We picked this place, because it’s opposite the Tesla Superchargers. I wonder if the cafe realises how many EV drivers now eat at their cafe 🤔. Charging: This is the first time we’ve charged the new car to 100% (or 99 ish). It estimated the range at 418km, which is the same as our previous Model 3 had, after 91,000km. The Model Y gets a bit less range due to extra weight and size. Charging was quick and seamless, except that the release button on the changing cable wouldn’t work, so we reported the issue via the Tesla app. We disconnected using the Tesla app too. Powered by the iconic Cullerin Range Wind Farm, just down the highway (pictured).

Cruising along the Hume Highway, between Gundagai and Yass.

The highway average speed monitoring system is now enforced for all vehicles. Fortunately, our Tesla monitors our average speed setting these sections, showing it on screen, so we can ensure that we comply. And, of course, in Autopilot, the car just drives itself for most of the drive. Driver fatigue is greatly reduced.

On the way out of Wagga Wagga this morning, we stopped at Rules Club.

Looks like a nice place – we’ll try out a meal there next time. Tom waited outside, in his bare feet, like a vagrant, while Fran went in to get a coffee. Our Model Y seating is much more comfortably higher than in our old Model 3. This has greatly reduced pain in arthritic hips, on this journey. The road grime is starting to collect on the previously shiny paint. After polishing off a travel cookie, we unplugged and headed off again. Earlier this morning we were on babysitting duty, with grandson Enzo. Lots of fun. He overpowered Tom into taking him for a walk towards the park. At the end, we drew straws as to who would carry whom back up the hill. Tom lost. We passed an intriguing street sign with added distances to Victoria and Queensland. Charging: We parked at the Tesla Superchargers, next to the club, and charged up while we bought a coffee. Another couple, Rob and Wendy, were in their Tesla Model 3, heading to Adelaide. I mentioned that I’d discovered a new setting in navigation…

The navigation showed red traffic ahead on the highway towards Goulburn.

We saved ten minutes of slow traffic, by taking an off ramp. Pretty proud of myself until the detour turned into a long dirt road through Brayton, which probably added twenty minutes to the trip. The photo shows an easy part of the road, but a few sections were pretty rugged. Glad to have the higher clearance of the Model Y (compared to our previous Model 3), but the 20 inch low profile tyres on this “Launch” model aren’t ideal for off road. I wish the navigation showed which roads are unsealed, and the length before reaching tar. This was our first major christening of the new car on dirt roads. Great scenery. The flat bum of the Model Y Juniper accumulates the dust. But the rain and a quick hosing at our motel sorted it out.

Coffee stop, just north of Glenrowan, at the BP service centre.

The Tesla/Google navigation only knew the south bound service center here, so the directions tried to send us over the highway 🤪. Thanks to the nearby solar farm that provides the power to the grid that found its way to our car. We overheard someone paying $1100 for fuel, presumably a semi trailer. Wow. 😮 Home baked Anzac slice (thank you Krissy) was the perfect accompaniment for the coffee and thermos of tea. The small birds begged us for crumbs. On towards Wagga. Charging: This is the first public charging for our new car. The Tesla navigation planned to route us through the Superchargers in Wangaratta, but we charged here because we were stopping anyway, for coffee. We aim to charge opportunistically – meaning: charge while we’re stopped anyway to do something else. In hindsight, we probably should have pressed on to Wangaratta for coffee and a charge. This BP charger cost 75c per kWh, which is probably the most expensive we have paid. The Tesla Superchargers, which are faster and…

First stop today, at Lake Nillahcootie, near Bonnie Doon, on our way north.

We happened to stop here just a few weeks ago, in our Model 3, travelling south. We grabbed a couple of toasties from the weekend food van, stretched our legs, and headed off again. Ultra red seems to be following us 🤔. Earlier, we passed through "The Black Spur" on the way towards Alexandria, where the last of the fern trees and tall trees farewelled us from our mountain ranges near home.

This morning we set off on our first road trip in our new Tesla Model Y.

Compared to our previous Model 3, we have so much room now. Even the sub trunk has another sub trunk. We’re also taking a couple of suitcases to deliver to a family friend along the way. We still managed to find room for the coffee machine. The autumn trees in our yard turned an ultra red, to send us off. First stop tonight will be near Wagga Wagga, then on towards Cessnock, Seal Rocks, then back to the Central Coast for a few days, before heading home again. Charging: I scheduled the car to top up charge in the early hours this morning, but I neglected to turn off “charge on solar”. It turns out that there’s no solar at night 😉. No problem, I just started the charging this morning when I woke up, so we had 80% by the time we left – more than enough to get us to wherever we end up stopping along the way.

First scratch on the new car 😩. Th

e hatch on the Model Y is much higher than our old Model 3. The open hatch fits in our garage, but not with the roller door open, it turns out. Fortunately, the car allows us to set a maximum height for the hatch to open, and even assign a different height to each location. Just to be safe, I used a cardboard buffer during experimentation.

Personalised TRIPNG plates authorised and attached, after a bit of faffing around.

Yesterday, after buying the car, we tried a VicRoads office, but they said they didn’t do plate transfers there. So, today we arrived at VicRoads in Ringwood, which ironically and inconveniently has no car park. We parked in Eastland shopping center, over the road, removed our one day old plates, and crossed the road. We had some playful banter with the staff, who kindly sorted out the transfer of a personally owned plate (oops) to a business vehicle. When we ordered the plate in line, i didn’t see any option to buy it asa business. They told us that we had actually paid $140 (as part of our car order) for the “old” plates, since they are the slimline design, not the kind of ugly larger blue on white. They suggested we keep them, since we paid for them. I wish now that I had elected the cheaper option when ordering the car. Oh well. The law requires displaying a blue “EV” triangle on each licence plate. They offered to sell us a pair (I think it was $5), including rivets, but I just…

Farewell old friend. We traded in our “old” 2022 Tesla Model 3 today.

It was unexpectedly emotional to say goodbye. So many great road tripping memories. 2022 Tesla Model 3 RWD White paint + White seats + Enhanced Autopilot + Boom box and Pedestrian Warning System 91,000km We ended up just going with the Tesla trade in quote of $27k. We could possibly have got $35k if sold privately, but it would have taken time away from work. And since it’s a business purchase, trade-in was just simpler. Our car was in great condition. It runs as well as the day we bought it. It has a few stone chips, paint chips around a side mirror (from reversing against a leaning wire fence), and a bent front license plate. I used my high tech equipment to straighten the plate. But I left the rest for Tesla to spruce up, since they have all the expertise for that. They can also replace the air filter and the rear tyres, which are due for replacement. Trade-in was all managed through the Tesla app, including photos. Today they spent five minutes doing a final inspection, and gave…

Today we picked up our shiny new Tesla Model Y “Juniper” from Tesla Mulgrave. Mos

t of the process was done through the Tesla app over the past week, so the actual pickup was super sleek. We traded in our 2022 Tesla Model 3 RWD, also streamlined through the app. After we arrived, the staff just spent five minutes checking the condition of the car. No issues found. Thanks to Nathan for leading us to our new car, and sharing our excitement, since he has also ordered one. He left us to inspect the car and said to just turn on the hazard lights if we had any concerns or questions. We spent 15 minutes looking over the car and taking photos. Then we just drove out of the building, to take it home. We have new custom plates “TRIPNG”, but we didn’t get to VicRoads in time to allocate them today. So, we just used a lump of Blutac to stick one on for the photo today. In Victoria, we only pay once for custom plates, not every year. The Tesla app automatically removed our “old” car and added the new one. My driver preferences automatically appeared in the new car. Very…

Back in January, we took the plunge and ordered a new Tesla Model Y “Juniper” launch…

…edition. “Ultra Red”, white interior, 20” wheels (which was the only option for the launch edition). We chose the same battery and drive as our Model 3: RWD (rear wheel drive), LFP battery (no nickel or cobalt), 0 to 100km/h in 5.9s. The main reason for the upgrade is for the greater ease of getting in and out of the car, which has been increasingly painful on Fran’s arthritic hips. As those of you who follow our Tesla Tripping blog will know, we have looked at and test driven quite a lot of other options. The best contender was the XPeng G6. In the end we stuck with the Tesla Model Y because of the huge storage space, driving performance and the tech. The Tesla app has guided us through the whole process up to now, with registration, trade-in, insurance. Today is delivery day. The final `Start` button is still disabled in the app. I’m guessing it will enable at exactly 3pm, when we’re at Tesla Mulgrave. We are trading in our Tesla Model 3, after driving 91,000 km in 2.7 years (plus…

Happy Mother’s Day, from us, visiting Healesville Sanctuary.

We hopped in the car, hit Navigation -> Hungry.

Yes, it’s an option! It showed a bunch of places offering food. We headed for Earthly Pleasures Cafe, in Belgrave, up the Puffing Billy Railway line from us in Emerald. Nice country town, also catering for tourists. We passed a random piano labeled “play me” on the pathway, with a musician taking the opportunity. A fitting accompaniment to the Autumn leaves. I used the car’s reversing camera guide lines to park right up to the curb without scraping it. The vision cameras showed the parking lines, except the one in front, since the windscreen camera couldn’t see it over the bonnet. When we got out of the car, I noticed that the car had heaps of space in front. I used the “Summon” function of the Tesla iPhone app to drive the car forward half a meter, like a remote control car. It will be interesting to see how the newer Teslas do better at parking, since they now have an added camera under the front bumper. We worked off the eggs florentine with a quick walk at the Birdsland Reserve, a…

A really short drive from home, down the road to Emerald Lake.

This is our most frequent place to go for a walk. The autumn colours are beautiful, at the lake, and back at home.

We’re selling our EV.

It’s been a fantastic car, never skipped a beat. It drives as well today as the day we bought it. We’re only selling because we need a car that has seating higher off the ground (arthritic hips). Selling for $35,000. No offers. We have a week to sell it, otherwise we’ll just trade in on a new car (another EV). Tesla Model 3 RWD, 2022 (August) 0 to 100km/h in 6 seconds White paint Includes extra purchases from Tesla: - $1500 white seats/interior - $5100 Enhanced Autopilot - $250 Boom box and Pedestrian Warning System Third party included purchases: - Rubber mats for floor. - Rubber mats for boot, sub-trunk, frunk. - Original unused floor mats. - Mud flaps. Unused, not installed. Included if required. - Roof shades. - Rear spoiler. 91000 km No accidents Rego: CGU321 Rego until March 2026 Runs on sunshine ☀️ Pick up from Emerald, Victoria. Or, we can deliver it within 100km.

Feb 1: Test drive of a Kia EV6.

Forgive the dust in the photos. Highlights, comparing to Tesla Model Y: - Good acceleration. Handles okay. - More physical buttons (good or bad, depending on preference). - Manual, not auto, adjusting steering column. - Much less storage. - Smaller main screen. Blind spot camera is on an additional smaller screen, behind the steering wheel … in a blind spot! At least, I couldn’t get a good view of it, which defeats the purpose. - HUD (heads up display) was a new discovery for me. It’s terrific to see your speed within the field of view of the windscreen. - 240V V2L outlet in the car, which is great. Apple Car Play. Missing in a Tesla.

Our first (and only) test drive of the new Tesla Model Y “Juniper”, at Tesla Mulgrave.

We only had 25 minutes in the car, which isn’t much to fully test it. Not enough time to drive to some winding country roads, but we did manage to find a tightly curved on-ramp to a highway. Driving at speed around it, we definitely noticed more body roll compared to our sportier Model 3. This did freak out my passengers. They also found the acceleration more noticeable in the back seat, which seems to tilt down. Tim described the acceleration as prolapsing his sphincter. The Model Y absorbs bumps much better, finding a good median between sport and comfort. This new model has the same acceleration as our Model 3, 0 to 100km/h in 6s., one second faster than the previous Model Y. This is the RWD (rear wheel drive) model, standard range, not the AWD long range. We prefer the RWD because it has an LFP battery, which has no nickel or cobalt, and a longer life span. It’s also cheaper. But slower acceleration and less range. We booked the test drive online, following the instructions to…

Having passed it dozens of times, we finally tried out the Cork at Cooks Corner Cafe, not…

…far from home, in The Dandenong Ranges. We were pushing close to closing time, so we just ordered arancini balls and cauliflower steak. Delicious! Cosy, charming, endearing cafe. We’ll be back. Just across the road, we wandered down the Lyrebird Walk, which lived up to the name. Charging: Same old boring story: we plugged in the car at home, which charged up for free from the snippets of sunshine that poked through the rain clouds.

Day trip out to the farmers market in Warragul. Farms grow giant donuts, right?

Also metal echidnas – who knew? Most of the market stalls ran off on site power. Just one stall had a droning generator. Charging: Our EV was all powered up from solar power at home, from yesterday. Driving on sunshine.

On the Thursday evening, just before Easter, let’s drive into Melbourne city! Crazy.

We were picking up one of our adult kids, who hitched a ride from Wagga Wagga. Heading out through the heavy traffic, it took me three of four attempts to navigate the junctions near the leaning arches. I have been through there many times now, buti still have only a 50% success rate at getting the correct exit 😞. Very glad that in bumper traffic, we don’t use any fuel, or generate engine heat or fumes.

Rest stop at Lake Nillahcootie, near Bonnie Doon.

On our way back home from the Off-Grid Living Festival and Corowa, crossing back over the border into Victoria. To our pleasant surprise, coffee and toasties were on offer from the Kalari Kafe van in the car park by the lake. Unfortunately, the generators powering the van filled the area with noise and some fumes. Hopefully V2L EVs will soon become so common place and accessible that more food vans will be able to use them. Charging: Two days ago, we drove our EV, fully charged from solar, from home in Emerald, Victoria to a B&B in Corowa, NSW. While parked at our accommodation, we charged up from a standard power point, before driving home today. About 700km in total, with no visits to charging stations required.

Strolling around the Off-Grid Living Festival today, in Chiltern, Victoria.

Such a wide range of exhibitors. Excellent food options, but very little shade. Lots of dust, which destroyed the car wash we did a couple of days ago. Very thankful for a smoothie from the Barefoot Blender. Most of the site seems to be powered from solar, or from V2L EVs. Great to see. Less smelly and noisy generators. Even the security motorbikes are electric. Nice!

Any power point is a charging station.

We drove from eastern Melbourne, Victoria, north to just over the border in Corowa, NSW. We can walk down the road and see Victoria on the other side of the Murray River. We were in Queensland earlier this week 🤪. We’re staying at an Airbnb house for a couple of days, while we attend the Off-Grid Living Festival in Chiltern, tomorrow. Charging: We charged up the car at home from solar, for free. We drove all the way without charging, arriving with 11% charge remaining. We plugged into a power point at our accommodation (yes, we checked first with our host), which brought the tank up to 76%, more than enough for our day trip to the festival the next morning. We could have charged at several fast chargers along our route, but since we didn’t need to stop for any other reason, we just drove on and charged at our destination. So many options.

Imagine driving an ICE (internal combustion engine) car for the first time, coming from…

…EVs. April 5: We drove in a couple of ICE cars around town (Airlie Beach and Cannonvale) for a few days. It reminded me of a couple of years ago, hopping back in our Mazda CX-5, after owning an EV. Here are my observations: 1. You can’t charge it up while parked at home, or at a shopping center. You have to go to a special “fuel station” to recharge the car. You can’t just leave the car to recharge – you have to stay with it, holding the recharge nozzle. 2. It smells. And the fumes are carcinogenic. The fumes come from the nozzle, but also out of the back of the car while driving. 3. When the car has enough charge (fuel), you put the nozzle back in the pump. But then you have to walk into the service station to pay at the counter. It’s not automatic at the pump, or it’s too complicated for most people to bother that way. 4. There’s a possibility of fire. The fuel is highly flammable. And the car actually combusts that fuel to make the car go. There are about 7 ICE car fires each day…

Road tripping through Europe gave us a glimpse into the future of EVs and road trips in…

…Australia. Border Regional Electrification Events invited us to talk about it in the Electrification Tent at the Off-Grid Living Festival, in Chiltern, Victoria (30 minutes from the NSW border). The audience asked some excellent questions. Thanks to all those who attended. Some of the slides from our talk, included here.

Back at Melbourne Airport.

Glad to drive our EV again, after our dabble on the dark side driving in some ICE cars. Such a smooth, quiet, drive, with no smoke or heat. Ahh ☺️. Our visit to Airlie Beach was mainly to assist with moving house for one of our kids. But we also loved spending time together at the pool, and local eateries. Charging: We left our Tesla Model 3 at the airport for a few days, with Sentry Mode enabled. That consumes about 8% battery per day to keep the security cameras watching and recording. We drove home and just plugged it into the wall, like normal, ready to charge from our solar panels, for free.

The NRMA Airlie Beach Holiday Park is a shining light.

EV destination chargers at each of the new cabins. Fast chargers out front for the public. Efficient electric hot water heat pumps. On site cafe and coffee. E-bikes. Walk to nearby Coles and shopping center. This is the future. Well done, The NRMA! Missing our own EV right now, still parked back in Melbourne airport.

4am is way too early to be up.

We’re off to Airlie Beach to visit one of our kids. The only direct flight leaves at 7:25am. Archie is being looked after by Alex and Robin at Wandin Valley Cattery. 😸 Charging: We charged up the car yesterday to 96% from solar. We’ll leave Sentry Mode enabled while it’s in the airport car park for a few days. I expect that will drain about 10% battery per day, keeping four cameras recording any nearby activity.

The “Long delays” prophecy was fulfilled today, when it took us four hours (from home) to…

…get into the Avalon Airshow. Very happy to have the car’s Autopilot take care of most of the driving, along the highway and then through the walking pace bumper to bumper final few kilometres. The car park was quite a dustbowl. By the end of the day, our hair, skin and clothes had a mixture of car park dust, aviation fuel fumes, and a touch of sunscreen. Mmmm. The show was amazing. Even understanding the physics, it’s still unbelievable how we can get tonnes of metal to zoom around the sky. We spotted a few electric buggies transporting VIPs, one electric bus, and even an electric powered tank and fighter jet (see the photos to figure out the twist 😉). But, still dozens of diesel buses and a few petrol buggies, pouring too many fumes into the packed crowd. But, hey, I think the aircraft exhausts may have overshadowed it all. And of course the “wall of fire” opening act that created an apocalyptic wall of black smoke (pictured). We mainly went to meet up with two of our adult kids,…

Our nearly yearly collection of soft plastics.

Even partially compressed, our nine months of soft plastics nearly filled our boot. It turns out that there are many collection points where you can take your soft plastics for recycling. We were passing through anyway, so we made extra use of our solar powered trip. We’ve also discovered that some other places take styrofoam, but we don’t have enough of that yet to warrant a trip.

We took another test drive of an XPENG G6, this time from a new dealership in Berwick…

…Victoria, which is closer to us. Nice interior, comfy seats, great tech. The handling wasn’t bad on some windy roads, but not as sporty as the Tesla Model Y. Disappointing storage. The auto driving hesitated quite a bit around bends. The lack of full stop on one pedal driving is annoying, but they will reportedly solve that in a few weeks via an OTA (over the air) software update. The G6 includes auto parking and lane change, which costs extra in a Tesla. It has vehicle to load, but it requires some adapter plug into the external charge port, which wasn’t available. We had a chance to play with Apple CarPlay, which is great to have. But the XPeng doesn't seem to support pinch and zoom in Apple Maps, which makes it very limited. Acceleration was terrible (doesn’t move for a second), until I turned in “launch mode”. I couldn’t figure out how to enable launch mode and regenerative braking (x-pedal) at the same time, which was annoying. Later that day, we happened to watch a YouTube…

How to optimise your driving for efficiency

1. Place one large slow cooker cauldron of soup in the car, between your passenger’s feet. 2. Select the most windy route to your destination. 3. Try not to let your feet slip into the pot. 4. Along the drive, aim for smooth driving, minimising harsh acceleration, braking, cornering and potholes. 5. Gauge your success from the car’s measured kWh per km. 6. Verify your success by measuring how much soup remained in the pot, and how burnt your ankles are.

Off to The Macedon Ranges today, for a Mystery Adventures Picnic.

It’s basically a foodie treasure hunt. Great Christmas gift, thank you Helen 😋. First stop at 3 Little Pigs Gisborne cafe, for coffee. Then, on through Watt's Fresh Woodend, Kyneton to Malmsbury, stopping along the way for a food platter, chocolates, bits, drinks and bread. Picnic at Malmsbury Botanic Gardens, with a walk to the Malmsbury Railway Viaduct. Charging: Charged up at home yesterday using solar, even though it was a fairly overcast day. 100% charged battery was enough for the trip there and back, plus Sentry Mode and keeping the air con running while parked at each stop along the way (to keep food and cabin cool). Returned home with 8%, ready to charge up again. Easy.

Night out to see Graham Norton, at Melbourne Art Centre, along the Yarra River.

Keeping with the Irish theme, dinner first at Pj Obriens. Charging: Fully charged for free by solar at home. We did notice a power point on the wall at Wilson Parking, but no EV chargers.

Random drive out to Ballarat to pick up a family friend and take them to the airport.

Two medium large bags and one carry on all fit into the boot, thanks to the sub trunk space. Before we left, I gave the car a “full service” by topping up the washer fluid. The screen showed that the tyre pressures were good there’s no engine oil or radiator fluid etc to check in an EV. Charging: We mostly charged at home, for free, from solar. But we did stop on the way home in Moonee Ponds for a few minutes for a toilet and charger. Total cost for “fuel” $3.58. Not bad for about 350km. The Moonee Ponds superchargers are a few levels down, and charged relatively slowly. But, at least the car park has reasonable signs giving directions.

Random day, including

1. A trip to the Dutch Festival in Carribean Gardens, to grab croquets, olliebollen and other goodies. 2. Picked up a large painting, bought on marketplace, and managed to fit it in our Tesla Model 3, along with three people. We might need a bigger car. 3. Found an echidna in our back yard, which inspired one of today’s NYT puzzle connections.