Continuing or short road trip, we drove from one side of Mount Dandenong at Destiny Point…

…Cafe, up the road to the other side, looking out from SkyHigh. It’s not the superhero school from the Sky High movie, or a high school at all (which I thought it was 🤦‍♂️). But it does have a great view all the way to Melbourne city in the distance. From up here, we feel like huge giants! $10 for parking on the weekend, which was pretty packed due to the Oxfam walk passing through there. Up to 87km walking, including 2km vertical (one support person told me). Then a beautiful drive home through the prehistoric looking fern trees and giant trees. Charging: Our EV (like most) regenerates energy on downhill runs. Since our home in Emerald is slightly less elevated than Mount Dandenong, we used almost no net “fuel” on the homeward journey. At home, we just plugged in and walked away, while 100% solar power topped up our car.

I think it would take a few years of weekends to visit all of the attractions in the…

…Yarra/Dandenong Ranges where we now live. This morning’s road trip started out to Destiny Point Cafe, in Kalorama, opposite the Silvan Dam Lookout. When we first arrived, three of the ten cars in the car park were EVs. We started with a seat on the outside of the cafe, but the 16°C plus wind soon sent us inside. Second day of Autumn! The coffee mug was a welcome heat source. The staff were lovely. The veg brekkies were delicious. Even the toilet courtyard was beautiful, adorned with various bonsai trees. Charging: We just leave home each day with a full “tank”, free from the sun.

“Drive on sunshine” ☀️ Also known as “charge on solar”. Or, just fr

ee car fuel from the sun, with no ongoing cost, fumes, noise, trips to a fuel station, burning coal, paying for oil to questionable regimes… well, you get the picture 😉. Tesla updated the software today to finally enable this feature in Australia. We first saw reports about it coming last week, but it didn’t appear. The USA has had it for a while, perhaps a year. I don’t know why they need to release it on a per country basis. Being the tech nerd that I am, after reading an email from Tesla today, I checked several times that my Tesla app was up to date, manually triggered the software update on the car, tried logging out and back into the Tesla app several times. Finally, a few minutes ago, the new feature appeared! If I had just left it, the overnight update cycle would probably have just done it all for me. Ironically, it’s after sunset now, so I can’t actually use it. But I have configured it so that the morning sunshine will start charging the car. Previously, I have used the…

Morning drive out to Blue Lotus Water Garden near Yarra Junction.

The entry fee is $24.50 per adult. The gardens are extensive and amazing. If I read correctly, they are the biggest summer supplier of water lily seed pods to Melbourne and Sydney. I should have realised that their opening time of 10am means that the cafe doesn’t serve breakfast. The lunch options are limited. We had a “brunch” of quiche/pie, salad and chips – baked on site and delicious. At first I misread one sign as “Supercharger” but it was actually “Supercharged Pink” which I presume is a flower variety. Charging: Our car was all charged up from the sun, the day before. We don’t need to charge while out on day trips. But it would be great to see EV charging at the Blue Lotus for long distance visitors. There are fast chargers in nearby towns such as Yarra Junction.

It’s been nine days of grid power outage here in Emerald Victoria. T

he community has pulled together to share resources. Today I received an SMS from Ben to ask if he could charge at our place. I assumed it was another neighbour asking if they could plug their phone or laptop in to the power board we laid out in the porch. We were the only house in the street to still have power after the storm hit, thanks to our Tesla Powerwall battery. It’s been charging up each day from solar panels on the roof. But Ben was actually after a place to charge his EV. I had forgotten about our listing on PlugShare during all of the neighbourhood blackout dramas. I said yes, no problem. Today he had driven from his home in Packenham east to Sale, then back west and up the hills to Emerald, and has a few more nearby drives to do before returning home. The navigation said he would get home with 8% charge, but that wasn’t accounting for extra stops. So, he wanted to play it safe. Charging: He plugged in here for about ten minutes, drawing a max power of about 7.2kW from…

We’re are back home in Emerald and have power!

The grid is still out, and is expected to be down until mid next week. But our house is getting power from solar and our Tesla Powerwall battery. Driving back home (after our road trip to NSW), we could see why Emerald is still in the dark. Many power lines (and phone/broadband lines) are still down. Emerald featured in the first story on last night’s (Friday) ABC news: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/abc-news-vic At least one of our neighbours is running a fuel generator. Another has a couple of solar panels hooked up to a car battery for night lights and a 12V car fridge. Schools are effectively closed. The local petrol station had one pump going, with a long queue. We have offered our neighbours electricity from our solar/battery power. One family had no power for three days, but now we have connected some extension cords over the fence. History: The grid died on Tuesday 14th. We were away road tripping in NSW. Our Tesla Powerwall battery continued to provide backup power to our…

Well, that’s not good. The Tesla Powerwall at home has just gone flat (zero percent…

…charge) at about 5pm today. Our new home town of Emerald is one of many affected by the grid outage in Victoria, after a wild storm hit on Tuesday afternoon. A couple of months ago, we had Lightning Energy install solar and a Powerwall battery at our new home. In a grid outage, the solar array is supposed to keep the house electricity going, recharge the battery each day, and keep the fridge cold. But the solar production stopped working when the grid outage started. Something is wrong with the installation. See the lead up story in our previous post: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=439045192389797&id=100088529584679 The battery has slowly depleted, until it hit zero percent two days later (this afternoon). I contacted the installer, Lightning Energy, a couple of days ago to hopefully fix it before the fridge died. No answer from service. So, I SMSed Andrew, who works for them and lives locally. He kindly offered to pop in on his way home to take a look. Here’s hoping we…

Off we go from Sydney back to home in Victoria.

Slow start with bumper traffic through Wahroonga. Popped the car on Autopilot and poured a cup of tea.

Wow, what a wild weather ride in Victoria yesterday.

We’re still in NSW, but the Weather app summarised the weather at home in Emerald as “Fire Weather” 😮. The heat was followed by a heavy storm that knocked down many trees and power lines. In the middle of the day, wholesale electricity prices peaked at a hundred times the norm at nearly $20 per kWh (normally under 20c per kWh). I checked our home remotely using the Tesla app. It was exporting power from our battery (and solar) to help keep the grid supply going, whilst paying us about $100 per hour for the supply! Our battery has continued to supply power to our home during the blackout. We messaged some of our neighbours an invitation to come over and plug in any needed devices (such as phones or a portable fridge). A few of them also checked on our house for us. Great neighbours and community ☺️. We might need to also offer them showers because those with on demand gas hot water often need electricity to light them. All the petrol stations in the area are also closed. We hope to be…

So many different modes of transport at Fully Charged Show’s Everything Electric, Sydney.

Our second day at Fully Charged Show’s Everything Electric Australia 2024. W

e checked out Tiny Solar Homes, Bosh Cooking, many vehicles (see previous post) and a few more panel discussions. I am particularly interested in Vehicle to Everything, but hampered until Tesla enables it on their cars, like BYD, Ionic, MG and others already have. I briefly ran into Chris Bowen MP (walking with Robert Llewellyn's and Dan Caesar). I asked him to stop subsidising fossil fuel companies. “One thing at a time, mate” was his response. I am very glad that he has finally brought in vehicle emissions standards and other positive steps. But stopping tax payer funding of fossil fuel companies, which are killing us, seems like a much bigger impact. No reason for us to wait to do that. The planet can’t wait, for sure. +1.5°C and still climbing 😢.

Wrapping up our first day at Fully Charged Show’s Everything Electric Sydney. G

uest panelist for Evie Networks discussing better public charging. Attended several panel discussions in the Giga Theatre and Mega Theatre. Spotted a few solar race cars. I grilled the team at the Enphase Energy stand on how I can turn off my solar production remotely. No satisfactory answer yet, so I’ll be back to grill them tomorrow. We asked the fire warden how many EV fires have occurred here so far. He said “zero” in sign, in the photo. Unsurprising since there have only been six EV fires in Australia (ever), none of them while charging. Finished off laughing, watching Jack Scarlett and Imogen Bhogal, from Fully Charged Show, cooking Pad Thai on an induction stove. Hosted by Zoe Bingley-Pullin (previously hosted Good Chef, Bad Chef). Back again tomorrow.

Arrived at Fully Charged Show’s Everything Electric Sydney, just in time for a vegan pie…

…and a quick view of some of the exhibits. Have to eat quickly before we’re on the panel with Evie Networks to discuss how to improve EV charging.

We arrived in Bright, after our trek north through the Victorian alps.

Fortunately summer days are long, so we still had plenty of light. We plugged into the town’s Evie Networks charger while we had dinner at the nearby Alpine Bright pub. We checked in to Motel Sierra and collected our travel blanket that Peter had kindly kept for us, since we left it there months ago on our last trip through. Carrying bags upstairs was offset by a cup of tea and biscuit on the balcony. Next morning, we had brekky out at The Riverdeck Kitchen, overlooking the river that runs through town. Francis managed to somehow squirt the yolk from her Eggs Benedict precisely onto her T-shirt. We watched as someone parked next to our Tesla, right up against the line, then inevitably hit our car with their door 🤦 Charging: The Evie Networks charger works just fine. Plug in, tap in the app, walk away, order dinner The charging finished before dinner arrived, so we moved the car.

After a long drive from Bright, through Yackandandah and Yass, we arrived in Berry…

…checked into the Berry View Motel, then drove around the corner to the Berry Bowling Club for dinner. A ute parked adjacent to us in the motel car park illustrates that some vehicles are just too big for current car parking. We had to reverse in at an angle to avoid scraping along the ute’s towball. Next morning, we popped into the local IV Coffee outlet, appropriately adorned with ivy. Then onward to the Fully Charged Show Everything Electric expo in Sydney. Charging: Since we were parking at the Berry Bowling Club for dinner anyway, we plugged into The NRMA fast charger on site. This would normally take about ten seconds, but the NRMA app had forgotten my credit card details, so I had to re-enter them. It also had some user interface oddities that prolonged the experience. Much of the app appears in web portals, which is not a coherent experience. I’d love to make a better app for them, specifically for EV charging.

On our way from Bright, Victoria to Yass and Berry in NSW, first stop in Yackandandah for…

…toilet, coffee and… cake. Francis hid from the paparazzi shot, while Tom claimed it was ordered when he ducked outside. Yackandandah is one of our favourite places to stop along the way. It featured in an episode of “Back Roads” on ABC. https://iview.abc.net.au/show/back-roads/series/1/video/IV1507H003S00 Charging: “Yack” has its own “Yack” community EV charger in town. We plug in while parked, so we’re usually fully charged when we get back to the car. It takes about 30 seconds of my time to plug in, and hit start on the Chargefox app. I was interested to see that the charger costs a third less between 10am and 3pm, perhaps because solar makes it free? When we arrived, a Nissan Leaf was plugged into the charger’s Chademo cable. I thought that we wouldn’t be able to charge until they had finished. But I plugged in anyway to the CCS2 cable, to try it out. To my pleasant surprise, it charged both our cars at the same time. The Nissan Leaf was nearly finished when we arrived and was…

Today we drove along the Great Alpine Road from Bairnsdale in Gippsland Victoria, through…

…Mount Hotham and various lookouts pointing at the highest places in Australia, including Mount Kosciusko. Unsurprisingly, The Great Alpine Road is the highest highway in Australia. Stunning scenery, on top of the world. We’re on our way to Fully Charged Show’s Everything Electric show in Sydney, and to catch up with family in NSW. Charging: From Mount Hotham down to Bright was about 55km, but we only used 1% battery, because the downhill run actually charges the battery (and doesn’t wear out the brake pads).

After staying overnight with our friends in Budgeree, we followed their BYD Atto 3 a few…

…kilometers north to Cafe 3869 in Yinnar. We had the biggest coffee we’ve ever seen. It was like a bucket-o-chino! We started heading north-ish, past the Loy Yang Coal Fired Power Station, and giant open cut coal mines with lots of sprinklers to try to contain the dust 😷. We stopped in Bairnsdale for a brief break for the toilet and a stretch. A ute had ICEd one of the charging bays, but the signage doesn’t clearly state that they can’t. We walked through the large park that seems to divide the main road in town. Then properly north along the Great Alpine Road towards Bright. Charging: The Tesla Superchargers in Bairnsdale were installed in the past few months, since we’ve last been through here. As always, super easy to use. Just park, plug in, walk away. No card, cashier, queue or waiting. It probably took 20 seconds of my time for the charging. By the time we returned from the toilet, it was all done. We unplugged at drove away.

After our short exploration of the Tarra-Bulga National Park, we drove north to Moe to…

…meet our friends, Ron & Sue, for dinner. We’re staying at their place tonight, in nearby Budgeree. Their house is off grid, powered by solar and an array of lead acid batteries. They drive a BYD Atto 3 which has V2L (vehicle to load) which means that, if necessary, they can plug their household items into their car. We wish our Tesla had that facility. Charging: We try to avoid “stopping to charge” specifically. Instead we aim to just charge “while parked” to do something else. For example, we were running 15 minutes early for dinner. We could have parked at the restaurant for that time, but we parked at the RACV Chargefox charger on the way there, instead. After dinner, we all dropped by Coles to grab some dessert. While parked anyway for eight minutes, we plugged into the Tesla Supercharger. We didn’t wait to fill up. We only charged while parked anyway. So, we spent a total of about a minute of our time charging, but got nearly 20 minutes of charge.

Setting of from Emerald Victoria to Fully Charged Show’s Everything Electric expo in…

…Sydney NSW, we headed… in the other direction, south through Gippsland to Tarra-Bulga National Park, and a walk to the suspension bridge.

In preparation for starting our road trip tomorrow to NSW, I want to protect my new found…

…Victorian sensibilities against the harsh heat and humidity up north 😉. Fortunately, Helen bought me a great Christmas present for the job: a ventilated seat cover! I know the Tesla Model 3 new “Highland” 2024 model comes with built in ventilated seats. But our 2022 Model 3 does not. Installation was fairly simple. I just looped the hole over the headrest, spent several minutes pulling it down hard, far enough to pop in under. I pushed the back of the cover under the plastic back of the seat. I couldn’t find something under the seat for the hooks to grab. It is powered by the 12V outlet in the centre arm rest. It does the job well, preventing my back from getting sweaty and sticking to the seat. I wish I had this for our earlier Queensland trips. The mini fans in the seat cover keep my back and bum ventilated and cool. The buttons allow setting the different fan speeds. The seat feels a bit lumpy, especially where the fans are. It makes a high pitch fan noise, especially when I move…

This is probably the most mechanical I’ve had to be with or Tesla in nearly 60,000km. T

omorrow we’re off on a road trip to Sydney, in part for the Fully Charged Show’s Everything Electric expo. In a recent rain downpour, our conversation went something like: Tom: The wipers aren’t very clear. Francis: Didn’t you order new wipers? Tom: Yeah, a few months ago. Francis: Oh yeah, I remember seeing it in the boot. Francis: Have you actually installed them? Tom: No. they’re still in the boot. Have been for about the last 20,000km, including our last trip to North Queensland. Francis: 🤦‍♀️ Anyway, now they’re installed. Pretty straightforward: 1. Order online via the Tesla app. 2. Receive package. 3. Place package in boot for a few months (optional). 4. Remind yourself each time it rains that you really must fix that smearing on the windscreen. 5. Finally, remove from boot and open box. 6. In the Tesla, in the `Service` menu, press `Wiper Service Mode`. The wipers move up to be accessible. 7. Place a cloth between the wiper and the glass, to avoid scratching. 8. Press the…

Lunch at Earthly Pleasures Cafe, in Belgrave, then back home to Emerald.

Out again in the afternoon for a beautiful walk to Sherbrooke Falls. The “falls” was more of a creek trickle, but we had a laugh. Maybe it grows in heavy rain. Every drive and walk around here is stunningly beautiful. Tall trees, giant prehistoric looking ferns, and coloured birds are everywhere in the Dandenong and Yarra Ranges. Charging: Same old boringly easy story: We left home with a full tank of fuel, which we can get for free from the sun. No stops to refuel. No fumes. No noise as we drove through the nature.

We drove out to Jells Park, in eastern Melbourne, to meet up for lunch with Atto Gal's…

…and “Gandalf” (Sarah Jane and Shane). They are past half way on their “big lap” around Australia in their Tesla Model 3, towing a pop up caravan. A few days ago they were in Cronulla and tried to meet up with Scott Morrison to show him that an EV doesn’t “ruin the weekend” and that you can tow – in response to his now infamous claims a few years ago. Today we heard that he resigned. We don’t think it was actually prompted by their visit 😉. https://www.facebook.com/share/JGK2yU9LTgyBhQxD/ In case you’re wondering why Sarah Jane is called “Atto Gal” – it’s because last year she drove her BYD Atto 3 EV from Perth to Sydney and back. So, this will be the second EV they’ve driven across the Nullarbor. We love the park with its wide open green spaces and view of the lake. And plenty of room for parking a caravan. A few others also joined us. Lots of conversations about road tripping in Australia, EVs and misconceptions. After we farewelled, they headed south to Sorrento to catch the car…

Archie (our cat) stayed home, while we headed out for a day trip to see the kangaroos at…

…nearby Cardinia Reservoir. Then dinner out with friends at Madang Korean BBQ. Fun day! Charging: We don’t even think about it. We leave home with the car fully charged and ready for anything.

A couple of our favourite places in town: Puffing Billy Railway at Emerald Lake, and…

…Sticks & Stones Cafe. Great service and staff, headed by Alison, who was one of the first people to welcome us to Emerald. The coffee and food is always delicious and spectacular.

Mystery solved!

A couple of weeks ago, an unexpected package arrived from VistaPrint with some custom printed mugs, tote bags and pens. The bags were branded with our Tesla Tripping caricatures. But the mugs and pens were of some random family and corgi dogs, who we don’t know! Mystery 🤔. We hadn’t ordered any of them. We wondered who had organised it for us. We ruled out the Caricature Queen (who drew our caricature last year) and some other suspects, because they didn’t know our address. We queried some of our local friends, but all denied it. Eventually we found out it was my mum and sister, back in NSW. They then arranged the correct mugs to be printed and delivered to us. We love them. Such a thoughtful, fun (and mysterious) gift. Thank you Lesley and Melanie 😍.

All moved into our new home, just in time for Christmas.

e for Christmas. Well, there are still tubs and boxes to unpack, but at least we can cook, eat, and charge the car 😉.

Emerald Village Bakery and Cafe is a magical Christmas wonderland.

Followed by a trip down the road to watch Puffing Billy Railway cross over the Puffing Billy Railway Trestle Bridge. Beautiful day out. Charging: We left home with a full “tank”, plugged into the wall charger. It’s so boringly easy and takes five seconds to just unplug when we’re about to drive off.

Hooray! The sun is shining today.

So, the installers were able to climb up on our roof to install our new solar panel array. These people mix electrical engineering and solar engineering with mountaineering! The team at Lightning Energy has been great. Thanks to Andrew for providing a detailed quote and updating it along the way to match my requests and questions. Thanks to the installation team for their professionalism and attention to detail. They were also kind enough to lend me some muscle here and there to help move a couple of things into the house from the garage. Special thanks to Caitlin for staying behind and coming back later to sort out a technical hitch with the power output being unnecessarily capped. We had a funny chat on the Enphase Energy tech support line with a self described “dumb blonde from Ohio” who flicked some magic software switches to make it all work. Not so dumb after all 😉. Geeky details: 11.88 kW = 27 x 440W Jinko Solar Tiger Neo solar panels 27 Enphase IQ8AC-72-M-INT micro inverters…

December 19 & 20: Carpet installed 😀! Ju

st added more to the mortgage redraw 😣. Now we have the house matching the Tesla, with white walls and dark floors 😉. Thanks to Choices Flooring (in Narre Warren) for the carpet, Choices Flooring Erina for the detailed advice and to Mick for the quick and thorough installation. We can finally start to move our belongings from the garage into our home and move in. One year and nearly three weeks since we moved out of our last house, in Saratoga NSW. One small issue, most of the does can’t open and close over the carpet. But we have someone coming in the new year to fix that. Charging: Between the carpet layer’s ute and trailer and all the solar installer vehicles, we can’t get into our driveway. So, no charging today. No problem, since the battery will last us over a week, based on current travel visiting our house from 30 minutes down the mountain. And there are many public chargers at shops in between.

Tesla battery and wall charger installation.

The team from Lightning Energy installed the undercover pieces today, while it’s raining, and deferring to tomorrow the installation on the roof of the solar panels, if the sun comes out. We had originally scheduled this installation for December 11 and 12, but rain on December 11 saw it canceled. We had this Tesla wall charger at our last house in Saratoga NSW, a year ago. The new owners there didn’t have an EV, so we modified the contract for us to remove the EV charger. It has sat in storage until the removalists delivered our belongings here a few days ago. It wasn’t really practical for us to bring the Tesla “Powerwall” battery with us from the old house, so we bought a new one for this house. It costs about $15k, which is a lot. There are cheaper battery options, but we know the Powerwall has a large capacity compared to cheaper batteries, and works well with the app, scheduling, blackouts, etc. We have heard from a few people in Emerald and the Yarra Ranges in general that…

The painting (and caulking) of the inside of our new home is finished!

We decided to have it painted while it was empty of furniture. We are so glad that we did because: 1. It would have cost double to paint it with furniture in it; 2. We didn’t realise how worn the walls were until the house was bare. The house looks so much fresher now with new white paint, compared to the old cream walls. Huge thanks to locals Bob Hardman (Mountain Ash Painting Services) for the two weeks of painting and to Adam (Spectrum Windows & Glazing) for the caulking. Beautiful job and attention to detail. Now that the walls are fresh, the carpet looks even older and in need of replacement. Fortunately, we have already arranged for that too, while the house is empty, in a few days on December 19 and 20, after the paint sets. Our furniture arrived on December 11, now crammed into the garage, waiting until we can finally move in. Charging: On the occasions when we visite the house, we just plug the Tesla into the power point in the garage. It uses the existing small solar system…

One year and one week ago, we set off on our road trip in our Tesla, all over eastern…

…Australia. We put our belongings into storage, with Storage King, on the NSW Central Coast. We didn’t realise then that it would be a year until we would find a new home. One year later, we have a house (in progress), in Emerald Victoria. So, we arranged for No Limits Removalists to transport our belongings from the NSW Central Coast to Emerald. They rang today, in transit, to say that they could deliver tonight (at 11pm) or 7am tomorrow. I was surprised to even learn that there is a seven in the morning, so I opted for the late night tonight and drove up (30 minutes) to meet them. Once they arrived, they worked fast to unload it all into the garage, while I tried to position it all for best access. The furniture, tubs and boxes will stay in the garage for a week until the painting is done and the carpet is laid. Then we’ll gradually move it into the house. Charging: The Tesla no longer fits in the garage. When we visit the house now, if we want to charge from the free solar, we have…

We’ve spent a couple more weeks in Knoxfield (thank you Helen 🥰), while waiting for our…

…house in Emerald to be ready. We explored some of the local coffee and shopping options. Choco Bean Cafe - Wantirna South (and sometimes Choco Bean Rowville Lakes) have been the regular preferred morning coffee supplier (hi Jenny 👋). At Knox Civic Center we saw a range of other EVs charging, including this beautiful blue wrapped Tesla Model 3. Charging: At the moment, we’re mostly parking on the street, so can’t charge from a power point. We charge every few days at one of the local chargers. We’ve so far just used the slow ones (Jolt DC 22kW in Bayswater, Ferntree Gully, Scoresby, free 11kW AC at Knox Civic Center and Knox Shopping Center). There are fast chargers, such as 50kW DC Evie Networks at Stud Shopping Center, but haven’t needed one lately. All the listed chargers include their own cable, except for the Chargefox charger at Knox City Council. We have the required type 2 cable, but I’m a bit over unpacking and packing the cable into the boot. The JOLT Charge chargers provide…

Our first delivery to our new house – a congrats savoury box from The Hamper Emporium…

…from Mortgage Choice in Tumbi Umbi. Thank you John and Amanda. What a nice surprise 😋 . John sorted out the loan for our previous house in Saratoga NSW, and now this one in Emerald Victoria. It’s been a long road, figuratively and literally. We packed up and left our old home on December 1 last year. We’ve been road tripping most of the time since then, and hope to finally move into our new home in a couple of weeks. We didn’t intend to take that long to find a new house. Our “pre approved” home loan with ING turned out to require additional financial info, which was difficult to do while we were on the road. I recall voicing our frustrations over the phone while driving through some country road out the back of nowhere. In any case, that pre approval expired after six months and banks started limiting new pre approvals to just three months. I’m not sure how they expected buyers to find a home in such a short time. In the end, we tried to get a loan through Suncorp, due to their good…

Finally had to deal with a flat tyre. But it wasn’t ours. Read on…

Today was the first real day of summer in eastern Melbourne, after a few drizzly days. I decided to get out in the nature and go for a walk, at the base of the Dandenong Ranges, at the 1000 Steps Kakoda Walk. I managed to park right near the entrance, between two of the typical gigantic utes that barely fit in parking spaces. Beautiful place. So green. Killer steps. It’s much worse than it looks in the photos – honest 😞. I think I did 1000 steps. I only made it half way up, turned around and came back down, hoping that none of the children and older people who passed me realised that I didn’t go all the way to the top. 🤫 I may need to get more fit. Back at the carpark, I found three flat tyres. It wasn’t our Tesla. It was a Mazda CX-9. The young couple driving it had missed the turn into the carpark, taken the next turn, which happens to have unforgiving road spikes to make it exit only. Three flat tyres! 😮😖. Three kookaburras watched our dismay and courteously managed not to laugh. I…

Here’s an update on our planned solar installation, in Emerald Victoria, since some have…

…asked. We were hoping to fill the sun facing part of our roof with solar panels. Lightning Energy has been great (Hi Andrew 👋). They put together a detailed initial proposal for us that would have given us 15kW of electricity from 34 solar panels (0.44kW each panel). The plan was to use that to charge the EV (7kW) and house battery (5kW), hot water, air conditioning etc. If/when we couldn’t use it all, we would export 5kW back to the grid. In a disappointing turn, we learned today that AusNet has rejected the proposal and capped it at a max of 11.9kW solar panels and 1.5kW export. So, our installation will be restricted to match 😢. The 11.9kW max solar production would only happen in full sun, in the sunny months of the year. On cloudy days, or in the middle of winter, solar panels only generate a fraction of the max power. For example, we might only generate 50% or 6kW on a sunny day in winter. The main disappointment with the AusNet system limit is that it reduces our capacity to…

We took another “trip” to our new home in Emerald, Victoria, past Puffing Billy Railway.

The painters (Bob and Andrew) are hard at work discovering and remedying some unexpected plastering and join defects. We don’t have furniture or food in the house yet. We sat outside and worked from our laptops, in the garden. We ate lunch at The General Food Store Emerald, and grabbed some enormous delicious scones for “lunch dessert” from Emerald Village Bakery and Cafe. We had to share just one. We also grabbed several night’s dinners 😋. On the return trip, we dropped by Choices Flooring again, to triple check our choice of carpet. The color looks different on-line. Charging: It’s overcast (welcome to Melbourne) so we only managed to grab less than 2kWh of solar early this morning at our temporary home in Knoxfield. We tried to make an excuse to eat the scones by parking at the JOLT Charge charger in Scoresby, but the charger was busy. No problem. Our battery will last more than a week around town. We could just specifically go to a charger, like we used to do with a petrol car,…

A lazy day trip up the Dandenong Ranges to Kallista Deli for brunch.

Delicious smokey beans and corn bread or Eggs Benedict. Our friends, Sue and Ron, took us for a spin in their newly leased BYD EV. We envied the retractable sunroof, V2L (vehicle to load) and virtual top camera view of the car parking. But it lacks Tesla features like autopilot. Charging: The BYD car includes a V2L cable that plugs into the car’s charging port with a double outlet power point on the other end. Ron was able to run an electric sander from that power point, drawing power form the car’s battery. We tried plugging our Tesla into that power point, to charge from the BYD, but the Tesla kept saying there was no power. It might have been because it didn’t like the BYD’s charging cable. I had left our charging cable at home 🤦‍♂️. We also tried using the V2L cable from the Tesla, to run the electric sander. As expected, no power. The Tesla does not support V2L. I am naively hopeful that one day Tesla will release a software update to make this work. Though I’m guessing it also…

After travelling in our EV for a year, up and down the east coast of Australia, we have…

…the keys to our new home, in Emerald Victoria! After a few stressful days wondering if the money transfer worked with ANZ Australia, we picked up our keys from Barry Plant Emerald. Thanks also to Mortgage Choice in Tumbi Umbi, NSW, for sorting out the otherwise mind numbing loan application forms, to get us this far. The painter has already started prepping. We’ve organised new carpet. Hopefully the solar and battery will follow soon from Lightning Energy. Charging: The all important test of our new home: the power point in the garage charged the car at 2.3kW for a couple of hours with no heating in the power point. So, the electrics seem good! Lightning Energy will also be connecting our Tesla wall charger, when it arrives with our removalist in about three weeks. The house has only single phase power, so we’ll get about 7.5kW out of it. That’s 7.5kWh per hour. So, our 60kWh battery will get half a tank in 30 / 7.5 = 4 hours. That will come free from our solar panels.

The final leg of our return trip from Airlie Beach in Queensland, to the eastern suburbs…

…of Melbourne. We left our accommodation at The Jolly Swagman Motor Inn Holbrook, then a brief stop at Chiltern Rest Stop. At lunch time we grabbed a couple of salad sandwiches from Mawsons Bakery Cafe, in Euroa, and ate them in Seven Creeks Park while the car charged and kept Archie in “cat mode” (shh, don’t tell him the proper name for it) air conditioned comfort. Then on to Croydon Vet Clinic and Lou Lou's Cattery and Small Animal Boarding Pty Ltd, and finally our last temporary accommodation at our generous sister Helen’s house in Knoxfield. In the pantry, we found our last bag of Brookfarm Granohlaah for breakfast the next morning! Charging: We left our motel with about 85% battery from overnight charging. There were no handy external power points but our host suggested plugging into an inside power point. Our extension cord fit neatly under the door. The power point didn’t feel hot when tested at night, but after a brief charge in the morning (after the coffee run) the prongs…

November 19 - 20: We paid our final visit to our storage shed at Storage King, Lisarow…

…to pull out the cat carrier. Today we finally picked up our cat, Archie, from Cat Utopia Resort & Spa in Doyalson. He’s been there all the time that we’ve been road tripping and searching for a new home. He was very chilled in the Tesla, snoozing for most of the trip. When we stopped for a brief lunch at Campbelltown Catholic Club and dinner at Oliver's Real Food Gundagai, Archie stayed in the car set to “dog mode”, which keeps him in air conditioned comfort. When we arrived at Jolly Swagman Motor Inn Holbrook, Archie checked the perimeter a few times in our room, peering out the window. Tomorrow, we complete our migration to Melbourne, taking Archie to Croydon Vet Clinic, and a brief stay at Lou Lou's Cattery in Bayswater North, while we get our house ready in Emerald Victoria.

Our Tesla’s Autopilot slowed to 90km/h on the Hume Highway, when the heavens opened. I

t still maintained excellent driving, amidst slowing cars and speeding trucks. On our way to Holbrook for the night, we stopped for dinner at Oliver's Real Food Gundagai, and enjoyed their new Mexican and vegetarian pockets, with a smoothie. The rain cleared to show “Jesus Sky”, with the sun’s rays coming through the cloud openings. Charging: We set the Tesla navigation to stop at the Gundagai Tesla Superchargers, behind Oliver’s. This also allows the car to “precondition” the battery for faster charging. When we arrived, we noticed that the general EV chargers (by Chargefox and The NRMA) were vacant, so we plugged into one of those. This is half the price of the Tesla chargers, but also allowed us to keep an eye on our cat, in the car, in dog mode. I commented in PlugShare that we’d be happy to move if anyone needed the charger, since one of the three was faulty. Just as we finished eating, a third car arrived – a family in a BMW EV. So, we ran out to tell them that the third charger…

While staying in Erina, NSW for a few nights, we popped into a few nearby shops to check…

…out carpet, dining tables, lounges, for our new home in Emerald Victoria. One of the lounges even has a power point into which we could plug our car! 😉 (No, we’re not buying that one.) We indulged in a coffee and lunch at Sage Cafe at Erina Fair and a massage in a chair that gets quite intimate 😮. The Tesla got a clean and shine from the guys at Snap CarWash Red in Erina Fair. Great job as always. They must wonder about the treatment of our car as we return from each adventure in different corners of the eastern states. We (Fran) finally removed the Tesla number plate cover, which had accumulated dust after many dirt road adventures. The car looks so much better without it, we think. While waiting for the car wash, we bought some toys for the Christmas toy drive at Coast Realty, where a couple of our kids work. 🎁 The staff at Choices Flooring Erina were super helpful, patient and knowledgeable. Thanks Gene! Charging: The destination chargers at Erina Fair were busy most of the times…

We drove south from Kempsey towards the NSW Central Coast, stopping for lunch at…

…Heatherbrae Pies Hexham. The toilets and taps have an interesting beer motif 🤔. Charging: We considered stopping for lunch in Nabiac, but The NRMA app warned us that it was in use, and the person there had thoughtfully logged into the PlugShare app, so we knew they would be a while. I’d like to see that wait time built into the charging apps, such as NRMA, Chargefox, Evie Networks. We tapped on the Heatherbrae Tesla Supercharger on the car’s navigation, so it would precondition the battery for faster charging. At one point the Tesla warned us that it was a busy charging site, but when we later passed it, everyone had gone. Tesla wins in terms of keeping everyone moving quickly. Since the Tesla chargers are on the opposite side of the highway, and it’s a busy road, we opted instead to use the BP charger on the south bound side. Just enough time charging for us to eat some pies. We unplugged at about 75% (from 25%) to give it to someone in a BYD who had just arrived. As I keep saying,…

John and Sue kindly invited us to stay last night at their house near Kempsey, on our way…

…south. Beautiful house and large property, with Marley the labrador to welcome us. We met John and Sue back in February at the Fully Charged Show in Sydney. John had then been waiting two years for his Tesla Model S order. He hedged his bets and ordered a black Model Y performance (shown in the photo). Later Tesla canceled his Model S order, after announcing that they will no longer make them for right hand drive markets, like Australia. They also credited $3k for the inconvenience, towards his Model Y order. We took it for a spin, with our heads planted on the head rests during launch. Whoa! It’s zero to 100km/h is 3.7s, compared to our standard Model 3’s 6.1s. (The Model 3 Performance does 100km/h in 3.3s.) The sound system is amazing, with about 14 speakers plus sub woofer. Charging: We arrived with about 17% charge, after our trip from Ballina (and a nine minute charge at Coffs Harbour). John was kind enough to allow us to displace his prized Model Y to use their wall charger at…

We continued south, crossing the Clarence River on the Harwood Bridge, near Maclean, then…

…headed east to find coffee in Yamba. Had a bit of a stretch and explore there at Turners Beach, just under the Yamba Lighthouse. Then back on the road to Woolgoolga for lunch at the Beachouse Cafe. The Tesla navigation plotted what I guess it thought was the shortest route to Woolgoolga Beach, but the turn off from the Pacific Highway turned out to be a long windy dirt road through monotonous terrain, so we aborted immediately and headed back onto the highway. The underlying Google Maps sometimes doesn’t seem great at determining or showing road conditions when plotting a route. Charging: We left Ballina with about 90% charge from the power point on the deck of our glamping tent. No chargers at our stops at Yamba or Woolgoolga (but there are in nearby locations such as Maclean). We grabbed a nine minute charge at the Tesla Superchargers in Coffs Harbour, then continued on towards Kempsey.

We woke in our Ballina Glamping tent at Ballina Beach Nature Resort.

It’s a great setup. Hot shower, four post bed, dishwasher, swing chair, stove, power points to charge phones and car. Yeah, we know how to camp! Not sure about the efficiency of the air con in the tent, but maybe not much worse than many uninsulated houses. Lovely staff and setting. We set off south along the south bank of the river, towards our next night’s stop near Kempsey. Charging: We plugged the car into the power point on the deck of our glamping tent, over night. We didn’t get a full night’s charge, because we got back from dinner in town at about 8pm. In the morning we had about 90% for our new day’s trip.

We arrived at Ballina Beach Nature Resort just after 4pm, and realised that all of the…

…shops and food outlets are located on the north side of the river, in the main town of Ballina. So, we hopped back in the car and onto the river ferry. It’s a $7 fee each way for a car on the ferry. We grabbed some Thai and ice cream cones, while watching the sun set over the river. A quick shop in Woolies for milk and breakfast supplies. Then we engaged boat mode again to re-cross the river and plug into the power point on the deck of our Ballina Glamping tent. Charging: When we booked on line, we asked about charging the car. Reception said we’d need to talk to the boss after 4pm. When we arrived, I chatted to Cameron, who was very helpful. He said that they encourage EV charging and hope to have more. He said we could plug in next to the cafe. I asked if we could have one of the glamping tents that has its car spot next to the deck, so we could plug in there to recharge. He swapped our allocated site to make it happen. We left with about 93% charge the next morning. There is at…