Daylesford + Junee 2023
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Off to Daylesford for the weekend.
You guessed it – looking at potential homes. We drove by a few houses, through Spring Hill, Trentham, then back to Daylesford. Beautiful region. Probably a bit too consistently wet and overcast for us, however. We stayed at Hotel Frangos, for sleeping, a dinner, and brekky. Lovely country hotel, friendly staff and friendly dogs (not part of the hotel, I think). The car park has an iconic metal gate, but it’s quite narrow, and we just managed to escape bottoming out on the dip. Francis took precautions against the Italian meatballs. Charging: We arrived with just 6% battery (as predicted by the navigation), and the usual warnings to charge now, because it’s cold! There’s only a slow (22kW) DC charger in town. But it’s in a prominent spot in the main street, which catches a lot of interest from passers by, and hopefully demystifies the whole EV thing. We also saw a Mini Cooper and a Kia Niro charging there. It took about 2.5 hours for us to charge up from 6% to about 96% (our battery is…
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In between house inspections, we grabbed lunch at The Convent Daylesford.
They were booked out, but Stephen was kind enough to call us a few minutes later when a table freed up. After a walk along Lake Daylesford, I searched through the main street of town for a cafe that served scones. You would think that they would be everywhere in this place, but no! In the end, it turns out that the only person serving scones here, is me! With help from Bakers delight Daylesford and Coles Daylesford for the ingredients.
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We drove down to Lake Daylesford with a cheese hamper from Winespeake for dinner…
…followed by the Borealis AU #borealisau light show. Lasers onto mists of rain fog and dry ice, with a mystical sound track background. Erie and beautiful.
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Breakfast in Daylesford, dinner in Bairnsdale, Victoria, over 400km apart.
We’re off to look at some houses on the far south coast of NSW, starting in Tuross Head. It was a last minute decision, when we stopped for lunch in Knoxfield, to just keep going. Autopilot took care of most of the highway driving. A quick charge and loo stop in Moe, and a drive past the carbon spewing coal fire power plants, which will hopefully be phased out soon. Charging: We just entered our destination into the car’s navigation. The car pinned the needed chargers along the way, starting with Moe. We just arrived, plugged in and walked away (to the toilet). Simpler than petrol. ☺️
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Arrived in Bairnsdale at the NRMA cabin/caravan park.
Dessert was chocolate mousse from OzMex Restaurant 😋. Charging: We messaged the accommodation ahead of time to ask if we could charge there while parked. They suggested we use one of the empty powered sites immediately opposite our cabin. Topped up at 15A (3.6kW) to 100% and ready to go in the morning.
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Stopped for lunch at Squire’s Cafe - Cann River, heading east. W
e were here, in Cann River, just a couple of weeks ago, heading west. Stopped in at the service station to remove a fresh layer of bugs. Charging: Ready to go again in seven minutes at the Tesla supercharger. Since we were still eating, and there were plenty of free charger stalls, we let it keep on charging too 100%. Easy.
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Driving through more of the NSW south coast, through Tathra, and Wallaga Lake.
Charging: Easy plug in to charge at Narooma’s Tesla superchargers, while we grabbed some groceries from Woollies.
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We stayed in Potato Point, north of Narooma, just across the channel from Tuross Head…
…om Tuross Head which we had visited a couple of weeks earlier. There’s something about kangaroos: so uniquely Australian, gentle but strong. Literally warm and fuzzy, but don’t underestimate them. They are everywhere, here. The grass is full of land mines for bare feet 😉. The holiday park is off grid. Run on solar, but I don’t think any batteries, so I think they have to run diesel at night. The powered sites are limited to 6A. The cabins have no microwave or electric kettle. Such a beautiful, peaceful spot. We could almost move in. We drove around the area for a couple of days, looking at a couple of potential houses (and grabbing coffee) in Tuross Head, and getting dinner in Narooma. I caught up on some work, and we just chilled. Charging: We just used the battery charge we had grabbed at the Narooma superchargers. We didn’t charge at the park, since they are off grid. We probably could have charged from their excess solar during the day, but it wasn’t worth the bother.
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After staying off grid at Potato Point, we drove to the nearest civilisation (ie coffee…
…outlet) in Bodalla. We were lucky to catch the (slightly late) 10am feeding of the calves and the strutting rooster. Charging: There is one Tesla destination charger on site. It’s fairly slow (20A, 4.8kW), compared to the typical 7-11kW, but it’s still twice the speed of a standard power point (10A, 2.4kW). Hey, it’s free!
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Driving around the south and north of Batemans Bay, checking out the views, towns and a…
…few houses for sale. Stopping at Melville Point Lookout in Tomakin, Observation Head Lookout. Charging: Free change at one of the two The NRMA chargers in Batemans Bay, while we had lunch.
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We stayed last night in a cabin/caravan park, along the Princes Highway, just south of…
…Ulladulla. We had a budget $104 cabin, but later discovered the small town shop themed cabins nearer the beach. Very cute. Just a short walk to the beach, “at your own risk” (not really that bad). Spagbol, veg pizza, salad and tiramisu for dinner from Tony’s Italian Restaurant in Ulladulla. The local cockatoos seemed to be all "on line" having a big meeting. We stopped for a coffee at Gerringong Cafe And Deli, on our way to meet up with some other Tesla trippers at the Tesla supercharger in Campbelltown. Charging: We asked at reception and they suggested just plugging into a power point at the cabin, which we did. Fully charged and ready to go in the morning.
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We met up with Keith, David and Lindsay at the Campbelltown Tesla superchargers.
Lindsay and David are just past midway through their “big lap” of Australia clockwise from Perth in their Model S. They showed us their epic collection of charging adapters and cables that fill their trunk. We grabbed a drink and late lunch in the adjacent Catholic Club and warned each other about the too high speed humps when exiting the car park. Next stop: NSW Central Coast Charging: Our charging was done during the introductions, before we entered the club. So, we just moved the car to an empty car space.
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The real reason we headed back to NSW was for Mum’s 80th birthday, in the Hunter Valley…
…but we had to keep it quiet. We all pitched in for an EV for Mum – well, an electric motor scooter. We couldn’t get the box to the Model 3, so I pulled the contents out, which all fit in the boot. Tom drove the scooter up the driveway, with Fran following in the Tesla, much to the amusement of all, and the surprise of Mum. It is amazing how simple the motor scooter is. Basically an electric motor on the back wheels and a battery in the middle. We wouldn’t dream of having a petrol burning version of this. As we were departing, we ran the Tesla light show, where it blares out music from the boom box, while dancing windows, mirrors and the hatch in sync. And of course the youngest got to try the fart seats, summon and go cart video game. And lastly, a sneaky stop to go “awww” at some alpacas.
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Staying for a few days in Erina, on the NSW Central Coast.
Finally gave the car another thorough clean, thanks again to Snap Car Wash. We did a double take on the sign on the back of a Red Bus Services bus, which seems to be asking the public whether goats should be driving buses. Charging: Thanks to our generous friend and host, Margaret, we were able to charge from solar panels and a wall charger. We used the Charge HQ app to automatically adjust the charging rate to match the available solar production.
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I test drove the new MG4 with one of our kids, Ben.
The MG4 was announced in Australia back in March at the Fully Charged Show in Sydney, but only became available in the past couple of weeks, widely applauded by reviewers. Review from our 19 year old: Yeah, it’s good, but not as good as the Tesla [Model 3]. The front looks good, but the back could be sportier. One pedal driving is easy. Lots of interesting options to try in the screen display. It has more impressive acceleration after about 30km/h than from a standing start. It’s currently the cheapest EV sold in Australia, starting at $38k plus on road costs. Plus you get whatever incentives are available in your state, such as free stamp duty and $3k cash-back in NSW. If your employer or business buys it, then they get the $3.8k GST refunded (as tax input credits) and you save about $5-10k on income tax (by paying no fringe benefits tax). At the end of the day, it could effectively cost you more like $25-29k. Note: Talk to a real accountant instead of taking my pondering as…
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We stayed the night in the NSW Blue Mountains.
In the morning we meandered along the spectacular Blue Mountains Drive, creatively bypassing the first closed section using the Tesla’s huge map to drive around the valley cliffs. Charging: Our accommodation listed as having EV chargers available, but when we arrived they told us we need to buy/borrow a $30 card as a flat fee for charging. We declined. I later found the chargers with a Chargefox sticker on them; opened the ChargeFox app, connected my type 2 cable; and paid through the app, about $10 for top up overnight to 100%. I suspect these chargers don’t get much use because the host staff don’t really know how they work. Earlier that evening, I also did a 10 minute Evie Networks charge, since I was parked anyway, in Lawson while getting a takeaway dinner.
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We started road tripping from The NSW Central Coast, back towards Victoria, initially…
…heading west through Wiseman’s Ferry and the Blue Mountains. We stopped for afternoon tea along the Hawkesbury River, just before the ferry. Thanks to Bron for the delicious home baked cookies. An hour later at the Hawkesbury Lookout, a tried to sneak in another cookie, but it was whisked out of my hand by a swooping kookaburra. It soon realised that it wasn’t meat, but was hesitant to give it up to a magpie that didn’t care. It’s a bird eat cookie world out there! Charging: All charged from the day before from solar panels while parked in the garage of our generous host, Margaret.
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We drove from The Blue Mountains to Oberon, where we were pulled over by the police.
It seems that our registration has expired! We were kicking ourselves 🤦. The reminder would have been posted to our business address, which we only check every few months, because we are road tripping. But we should have had a calendar reminder for it anyway, or at least just realised. We collected the car on August 31, 2022, but I guess Tesla registered it a few days beforehand. The officer was very kind. No fine, but he told us we couldn’t drive anywhere until we renewed the registration. Easy to do, on-line, right? It took us ages to find the CTP (green slip) policy number, since Tesla has organised it originally. NRMA Insurance website told us it was undergoing maintenance. We used the chat feature to get help, which suffered slow responses and the support staff also experienced the maintenance issue. Thanks to The Hub Pizza for sustenance while we sorted all this out. Eventually all done, just as a hail storm rolled into town. We copped some small hail on the drive or towards…
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Stopped at the Bathurst chargers.
We used the time to catch up on some laptop work, powered by the car’s USB-C ports. We stayed overnight at the local The NRMA holiday park. Cute gold rush town theme. 10% off with NRMA membership. Charging: Free charge thanks to The NRMA charger, next to the row of paid Tesla chargers. Almost all EVs (except those with a Chademo connector, such as the Nissan Leaf) can now use any of these chargers. But we checked in on PlugShare with a comment to say that we could move if someone needed the NRMA charger. But we were the only car there the whole time.
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Arrived in Junee, after driving along the Olympic Highway from Bathurst.
Burgers for dinner at the Jail Brake Inn, by the light of the full moon and road trains. Sleeping at Junee Tourist Park. Charging: We asked about charging at the park and were told we could use a power point from the cabin. The good news is that the mobile charging cable reached from power point to car (without an extension cord). The bad news is that we couldn’t close the door, and the night was too cold to leave it open. In retrospect, I should have moved the car to next to an outdoor power point, but I didn’t bother.
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Woke up in Junee and drove one block to the Junee Licorice & Chocolate Factory, for…
…breakfast and coffee served with, as you might guess, licorice wrapped in chocolate. Then a quick visit to the homewares/gift shop upstairs, including fur lined crocs. Then we drove on towards Wagga Wagga. We needed to get back to Knoxfield in the east Melbourne suburbs today. Charging: I regretted not charging last night at our accommodation. When we arrived at The NRMA charger in Wagga Wagga, it was in use by a model Y. Fortunately the driver had checked in via PlugShare so I could see that he would be there for an hour, which was too long for us to wait. The next options for fast chargers are at Tarcutta (which would have been a slight diversion) and Holbrook, where we headed, with projected 10% battery on arrival.
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We arrived for lunch and our last charge in NSW before crossing the border.
We had a chat to Keith and his wife (sorry, forgot your name 🤦) who were plugged in when we arrived. They’re retired and drive between Melbourne, Canberra and Mildura visiting family. Next stop Euroa, on our way to Melbourne today. Charging: After not charging last night at our accommodation in Junee, and The NRMA charger in Wagga Wagga tied up for an hour, we aimed for Holbrook, arriving with about 9% battery charge. Keith had already plugged in, but unplugged at about 90% and headed off after we chatted. We charged up while grabbing lunch.
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A quick stop in Euroa to empty some urea, and give the car a final charge before…
…Melbourne. We admired the shiny Model Y compared to our road dirtied Model 3. When the owner returned we had a good chat about EVs. She has only had it a few months. She had recently driven with her father to Shepparton when the Tesla navigation told her that Euroa was her only charging option and she’d have to drive at 30km/h to make it. Stressful. I pulled out the PlugShare app to show her the other non Tesla chargers in Shepparton and explained that they have built in CCS cables that plug straight into your Tesla etc. I couldn’t bare thinking of her limping along the road again. I also explained that the charging stall at the far end is reserved for EVs with a trailer. Charging: Same old simple story. We had entered our destination into the Tesla navigation. It directed us to stop along the way in Euroa. So, we stopped, and plugged it in, walked across the road to the toilet, came back, unplugged, drove off. No credit card, waiting in line, or breathing in fumes while holding a…
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Another day trip to look at potential new homes.
First stop Mount Evelyn, then Alexandra, in Victoria. The house in Mount Evelyn has an impressive view over its curved driveway. In Alexandra, Francis befriended the four chickens: Henny, Penny, Jenny and Karen. Stopped at Beechworth Bakery, Healsville for pies and what I would label as a custard burger, but is apparently called a “bee sting”. One of the most beautiful drives we’ve done, incorporating the Black Spur Drive. Charging: We didn’t charge the night before 🤦♂️. Since we arrived a bit early in Alexandra and had to wait somewhere anyway, we plugged into the local Evie Networks charger for a few minutes. I didn’t bother charging on the way back, since we had enough to get home. We arrived back in eastern Melbourne with about 10% battery, which meant we couldn’t enable sentry mode while it was parked on the street overnight. The next morning I charged up at JOLT Charge in Ferntree Gully. I miss having my own garage with a charger.