Melbourne ↔ Sydney via Gundagai 2023

We are constantly impressed by how easy the Tesla Superchargers are to use.

We enter our destination into the car’s navigation. The car adds the needed supercharger stops. We arrive, plug it in, walk away to the toilet or cafe. The app tells us that it’s nearly finished charging and we should get back to move the car. So easy, right? Well, except, as you might have noticed in these photos, it seems that I can’t manage to actually park on the correct side of the chargers 🤦. Where possible, we have aimed to instead use other types of chargers, just to familiarise ourselves with them (and to make some content for these posts). But, if you have a Tesla, the superchargers are the simplest and quickest way to go.

We stopped in Holbrook to have the obligatory photo with the submarine and a couple of…

…pies. We chatted with one guy who was driving his Tesla and daughters from Adelaide to Sydney. Also chatted with Kate and Karen in their Kona 😊 (pictured). They’ve only had it a few weeks and this was their first big trip. Lovely to chat with them. We talked about the Kona. I mentioned that we had chatted with Margaret McDonald about her pioneering trip in the Kona a few years back. Karen said she knew Margaret and Hugh Sykes through her work at the Central Coast ABC (if I recall correctly). Margaret and Hugh are EV celebrities that inspire many 🤩. Charging story: When entering the trip into the navigation in Melbourne, I had only set our destination as our first stop, in Thurgoona (to visit some old friends), so the Tesla didn’t have the chance to tell me I needed another charge after Yea to get to our next stop at Gundagai. As you can see from the screen, it starts to freak out if there are no Tesla branded chargers around 😆. No dramas though. There’s The NRMA charger in Holbrook.…

We stayed overnight at Hillview Farmstay in Mount Adrah, just south of Gundagai.

Great place to stop halfway between Melbourne and Sydney. Lots of goats, sheep and an alpaca to pat or join for their daily feeding. Charging: What a bonus! This place has two Tesla destination chargers. They are capable of 11kW, but the sign requested that we use only 4kW (5A x 3 phase x 240V), and only at certain times. So, we couldn’t quite get a full charge overnight. But very thankful.

Morning caffeination at The Coffee Pedaler in Gundagai.

Then stopped down the road at Dog On The Tuckerbox. Years ago, we stopped here at Oliver's Real Food and for the first time saw the Tesla Superchargers at the back. That’s probably what started us mulling over the idea of buying an electric vehicle some day. Now we’ve come full circle. Charging: There seems to be a bit of work going on at the chargers. I decided to give The NRMA / Chargefox chargers a go. These ones aren’t free. I used the faster charger and got the same speed that I think I would have got from the Tesla supercharger, since our car takes a maximum of 170kW. We get 20% discount, since I am an NRMA member.

Stopped for lunch in Goulburn at Cafe5911.

Great food and service. Only a 200m walk from the Tesla Superchargers, through Belmore Park. This is the first time we have taken our EV through Goulburn. Charging: These Tesla Superchargers are at the opposite end of town from the usual Big Merino servo and fast food stop, which I think has a charger from The NRMA. Of course the Tesla navigation led us here, so it was easy to find. As usual, it did everything for us: plotted the route; predicted how many chargers are available; preconditioned the battery for optimum charge; automated payment without needing an app or credit card; warned us via the mobile app when charging was nearly done. We just arrived, plugged in and walked away. By the time we used the toilets in the adjacent tourist information centre, we had enough charge to continue our trip. But we decided to explore a bit and grab some extra charge. I had just enough time to order lunch before the car was fully charged and needed to be moved. The Tesla charging system is…

We’re staying a couple of weeks at The Palms at Avoca. I

n all the time that we lived in the Central Coast, we never knew this place existed. It’s kind of a cabin park, with pool, games room and so on. Very peaceful, with lots of birds. Short drive to beaches and shops. A couple of our kids visited to try out the games room.

A charging story, for those who might be interested.

It took a while to find a way to charge at The Palms at Avoca Beach. We had asked about charging when booking, and the friendly staff said that we could just plug the EV into the cabin. Attempt 1: Too cold When we arrived, since we were staying a couple of weeks, they had generously upgraded our cabin. But this one (number 20) is down a path from the parking. We managed to make our extension cord just reach along the path through the door to a power point. However, when switched it on, the Tesla UMC (universal mobile charger) showed a red light flashing twice. I checked on the screen in the Tesla and tapped on the warning. The table showed that this problem is due to insufficient grounding of the power point. Attempt 2: Too hot I asked the staff about other options. They were very helpful, suggesting one of the two larger cabins that have a power point on their balcony. Since they had no booking there, they said we could park there to charge. I tried the first cabin, which worked, but…

Great food and service. Close to the Tesla Superchargers.

Peaceful. Lots of bird life. Friendly staff. Short drive to beaches, walls, shops, cafes.

We left the Central Coast this morning, dropped off one of our kids at Sydney airport…

…and kept driving south towards Melbourne. We stopped for our first time at the Tesla superchargers in Campbelltown (next to Campbeltown Catholic Club). There are several fast food outlets across the road, but we opted for the nearby Arts Center Cafe. Charging: It’s so simple that it’s hardly worth mentioning. We entered “Melbourne” into the car’s navigation and it added the charging stop in Campbelltown. The car preconditioned the battery for optimum charging as we approached. We parked, plugged in the cable and walked away to have lunch. It was the first time I’ve seen our car charge (briefly) at its maximum rate of 170kW. The Tesla app notified us when we had enough charge to keep driving, but we stayed and charged a bit longer to finish lunch.

Breakfast this morning at The Coffee Pedaler in Gundagai, before the final leg of our…

…drive to Melbourne.

We stopped at Euroa for a late lunch, on our way to Melbourne.

Beautiful park across the road from the Tesla superchargers, and some food outlets up the road. Charging: We drove from Gundagai to Euroa, arriving with 7% battery remaining. The Tesla had recommended charging in Wondonga, but we overrode it. We were happy with the 7% predicted arrival. 110 - 115 km/h most of the way, on Autopilot. By the time we had been to the toilet across the road, the car had already finished charging enough for us to continue our trip to Melbourne. But we let it charge more while we walked up the road to get some lunch.