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We checked out of our B&B in Eumundi.
Knowing that we wouldn’t find a park in town on market day, Tom double parked while Francis grabbed a coffee. What about breakfast? We headed south to IKEA North Lakes, to look at some furniture (for our new home in Emerald, Victoria). It turns out they serve breakfast there too, some assembly required, no Allen keys. Morning tea was, well, covered by guilt. Then off south through the outskirts of Brisbane, over the apocalyptic looking Sir Leo Hielscher Bridges. Charging: We left our accommodation in Eumundi with a full battery, after charging overnight from a power point. When at IKEA, we used the DC fast charger in the car park to top up again, since we were parked anyway.
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We stopped for a couple of nights in Eumundi at Eumundi Escape B&B.
Dinner at Sala Thai and Imperial Hotel Eumundi, with a walk through the Christmas decorated trees, the night before the place is packed with visitors to the Wednesday (and Saturday) markets. Time to catch up on some work, overlooking the nature, with some of the nature looking back 🐸. We tried out the of coffee machine and frother a few times. Not bad! It saved us enough in coffee purchases to pay for charging! 😉 Eumundi is between the Bruce Highway and the train line, so you sometimes try to pick where you’re heading a truck, train or plane 😉. Charging: We asked our hosts, when booking on AirBnB, if we could plug in our car while staying. They kindly said that’s fine, and that some other EVs had plugged into a power point somewhere. The electrics on the outside power points seem very good. We had to unplug the small water fountain temporarily. There is an extra flat payment of $25 for EV charging. That’s more than the under $6 (less than 20c/kWh off peak) it would cost us to fill our…
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November 11 - 13: After driving from Mackay, we arrived in Rockhampton at Korte's Resort.
Fancy motel with a pool, restaurant, laundry, kangaroos in the distance, and Tesla destination chargers. Really friendly and helpful staff. We spent way too long trying to rebalance washing machines while trying to get through the backlog of clothes from the previous week. Also squeezed in some paid work on the laptop. We popped ten minutes down the road to explore the Kershaw Gardens. It’s an oasis of green with kids playground, water jets, waterfalls, walking path through a mini botanic garden. We have officially run out of Granolaah from Costco in Victoria, so we really need to hurry back south now. Charging: We had enough range to drive from Mackay to Rockhampton, but we did charge up 10% in Marlborough, while stopped there anyway for the toilet. At Kortes Resort we charged up from the free provided Tesla destination chargers, which are nearly five times faster than a power point. In hindsight, we should have mentioned our EV when booking, because the chargers here are actually in…
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A couple more stops for a stretch and a wee, along the Bruce Highway, heading south.
First stop at the new Tesla Superchargers in Calliope. I’m told it’s pronounced “cal eye o pee”. These weren’t here on our previous trip in January. They are now the new most northern Tesla Superchargers on the east coast (previously Gympie). Bit of an isolated spot, but a short walk to the service station, cafe and toilet. We only stopped for the few minutes to walk there and back. The next stop was in Gin Gin, which just happened to have a bakery and a charger. So, this turned into a lunch stop. Interesting main street layout, with a park and toilets on an island between the north and south lanes of the Bruce Highway. Charging: We didn’t need to charge. But we did so at each stop, since we were parked anyway. The charger in Calliope is capable of a max speed on our Tesla of 170kW, but for some reason reduced to 39kW. Weird. The charger in Gin Gin is a slower 50kW max, but consistently provided 45kW.
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Probably the most spectacular toilet stop on our trip: The Cistern Chapel of Maryborough.
The Caricature Queen had actually drawn it in our caricature early this year, but we’d not previously seen it for ourselves. Very flash flush! We had hoped to finally meet the Caricature Queen face to face, but we unfortunately passed through on a day that the shop is shut. Charging: We plugged into the QESH charger in Maryborough, expecting it to reach near full by the time we returned. Some error caused it to stop at 85%. We notified them via the Chargefox app. A second attempt, after we walked back, finished off our charge.
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November 9 - 10: Snorkelling at Cats Eye Beach in clear blue water just above the coral…
…with a range of coloured fish, stingrays and turtles. Buffet breakfast with dragonfruit and granola and other healthy and less healthy options). A bit more work on the laptop from the balcony. Rainbow birthday cake, taking care not to feed the cockatoos, who will tear apart the room, given the chance. Then back on the ferry to the mainland. It’s been a fun four days. Charging: The most common vehicle on Hamilton Island is the electric buggy (golf cart). There are charge points every where, so you can typically plug in while charged. It’s EV utopia! I wish they’d make the other vehicles also be electric. The minibuses gas out the waiting passengers while loading. Meanwhile, our Tesla has been fully charged on the mainland while waiting with Whitsunday Parking & Storage. Ready to start our return journey back south, starting with Mackay and Rockhampton.
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November 7 - 8: Celebrating our daughter Erin’s 21st birthday – the main reason for this…
…road trip. Lots of fun and laughs over meals and exploring, meeting some locals. Managed to squeeze in some work from laptops on the balcony.
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We’re driving from Mackay to Rockhampton today. I
t’s one of the longest stretches of “not much here”, with signs along the Bruce Highway like “Still a long way to go, kids” and trivia questions/answers. We stopped for lunch at one of the few options along the way: Flaggy Rock Cafe. It’s a great little place with good food. The cars jostle to find parking in the shade. We moved the car out to the RV section to park under a tree, and kept the air con running to keep our food cool. A bit further down the road, we stopped briefly for the toilet at the Marlborough Service Station, with a reminder that we’re not paying $2/L for petrol 😮. Charging: We charged up to 99% at the DC fast charger in Mackay, while getting coffee. It would be great if the Flaggy Rock Cafe had a charger, but alas, no. The Tesla navigation said we would reach Rockhampton with about 9% remaining, which is fine. Since we stopped for a few minutes in Marlborough anyway, we plugged in while there, which upped our arrival in Rockhampton to 22%. Our accommodation there…
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First stop, at Zarby’s Cafe’, heading back south from Hamilton Island and Airlie Beach.…
…We discovered this cute diner, with good food, a couple of weeks earlier on our way north. We arrived 20 minutes before closing time, but the staff were kind enough to make us a delicious sandwich and chips. The couple who arrived after closing had to settle for Pringles for lunch 😢 😉. Charging: We also remembered that Zarby’s has a destination charger – meaning that it’s slower than a fast DC charger but is well suited for when you’re stopped at a destination for an hour or more, such as for lunch. We hadn’t needed to use it on our previous visit, so this was our first. It uses the Exploren app, which is rare but we’ve used it before, elsewhere. I plugged in the car, then tried to use the app to start the charging. Other apps like ChargeFox and Evie just check your location. But this app also wants you to enter the station ID, either by scanning a QR code, or typing it manually. I tried both several times, but it kept failing to recognise its own ID. I rang the support number, and…
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We popped in to see Kylie, Aaron, their family, pets and newly wrapped “Tarquin” the…
…Tesla, in its burnt orange glory. We first met them (back when Tarquin was white) nearly a year ago when we were road tripping towards Cairns (and the Daintree). Since then, Kylie has been following along on our blog, making suggestions along the way. They kindly invited us for some afternoon tea today ☺️. The finished edges of Tarquin’s wrap are impressively neat. Our Tesla is basically the same, except ours is wrapped in bugs and thousands of kilometres of road dust. Francis was ready to adopt a few of the pets. We considered charging in the garage, but the pricing (made especially for us) was too high 😉. We stayed overnight in a motel in Mackay, which turned out to be right under the flight path, next to the airport. It was amusing, rather than annoying, until perhaps the 6am wake up call of what seemed to be a truck on our roof. Charging: Next morning, we stopped at the fast (ish) DC charger in Mackay. Francis takes great delight in plugging it in successfully after it doesn’t…
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November 4 - 6: After an unsuccessful attempt to make coffee using the machine in our…
…accommodation in Baybliss Apartments, we set out to The Hangar Cafe, a few minutes away at the airport, next to the runway. Some people were so desperate for coffee that they jumped out of planes to get there. We’re guessing that at least one of the chopper pilots lives on site with their family. We watched their kids zoom along the service road on e-scooters next to the runway. During an afternoon swim in the pool at our apartment, Erin and Isaiah paid us a surprise visit. We went for a joy ride in the Tesla to nearby Funnel Bay. Lovely spot. I briefly awoke at sunrise to catch a photo through the balcony window of our accommodation. You’re welcome 😉.
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November 4 - 6: A few visits to Airlie Beach.
First for the waffle chips (and salad for balance) at Airlie Beach Treehouse. The established trees around Airlie Beach Lagoon are amazing, with their intricate root systems that start metres above the ground. The lagoon is needed for swimming, because the ocean is trying to kill you, according to the warning signs. The prettier the ocean, the more deadly, it seems. The parking lots by the beach use a pretty simple EasyPark app, at $2 per hour parking. Almost no shade, however. On our last day, while buying Cocopops from Airlie Beach Woolworths across the road, we discovered it has its own shaded car park. Charging: No EV chargers around here, which seems to be a lost opportunity.
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We took the ferry from Airlie Beach over to Hamilton Island, past a giant cruise ship, to…
…meet our local family, Erin and Isaiah, and pick up another daughter, Amber, from the airport. Tom did his best impersonation with the other chauffeurs, holding the passenger name sign. We squished into the electric buggy and headed to our accommodation in the Reef View Hotel,. We checked out the views from the hotel’s balcony and glass elevators as the sun set. Charging: Visitors can’t bring their cars to Hamilton Island, so we booked our Tesla in for valet/storage parking at Airlie Beach. Booking through Looking4Parking was buggy and frustrating, but we eventually got it. Whitsunday Parking & Storage sent us an SMS, with the photo of our car next to a power point, offering to charged the car for us, while parked. They don’t have a charging cable, but they used our cable from the boot to charge the car. Nice!
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Kangaroos on the beach at sunrise at Cape Hillsborough Nature Tourist Park.
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We took a day trip out through Dingo Beach, over OMG Hill to Cape Gloucester Resort in…
…Hideaway Bay. What a beautiful spot. Delicious coconut and mango curry with little naan breads seemed perfect with the tropical sunset. Charging: On the return trip, we took the opportunity to charge up at the newish Evie Networks charger on the Bruce Highway near Proserpine. It has two chargers (which makes a huge difference to statistical accessibility), and they are at least twice as fast as the 50kW Yurika charger in the town. Frustratingly, the front gate to the Whitsunday Visitor Information Centre is closed after 3pm when the Whitsunday Gold Coffee cafe there is closed, which means that this fuel stop is most often inaccessible 🤦. There is a side entrance to the car park, with just a few traffic cones. We moved the cones temporarily, charged, then headed back to our accommodation in Shute Harbour.
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We drove through Proserpine and Airlie Beach to Shute Harbour, to stay for three nights.
Found this great place Baybliss Apartments on Booking.com, with window overlooking the bay and a shared infinity pool. Charging: Unfortunately, there still aren’t any public EV chargers around Airlie Beach and Shute Harbour. The closest is in Proserpine, 20 minutes away. So, we fully charged there before heading to the coast for a few days. While charging, I caught up on a bit of digital nomad work and we shopped in Peries IGA Proserpine. The parking at the apartments is in a cul de sac, so we couldn’t plug into a power point.
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Getting away from the hustle and bustle to the natural beauty of Cape Hillsborough Nature…
…Tourist Park is great, but in the morning, Francis longs for the civilisation of coffee. We set off for a day trip to nearby Seaforth, but just found more of the nature, without coffee. We diverted down a dirt road through the cane fields to Mount Ossa, back on the Bruce Highway. There we found a great little diner called Zarby’s Cafe’. Decorated with rock and roll icons like Elvis and a juke box, but playing good old country music. Delicious eggs for brekky, and the coffee, of course. Lovely staff. Back to the holiday park for a swim in the pool and to test out the water slide. Lazy evening for the kangaroos, probably preparing for the paparazzi tomorrow morning. Charging: We had charged up to 100% from the cabin the previous day. Zarby’s has a paid destination charger, which was a nice surprise, but we didn’t need to use it, this time. When we returned to camp, we plugged into one of the vacant 15A caravan sites (with permission) to top up before leaving tomorrow morning.
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Woke up late on our first morning.
Digital nomad work in the middle of the day, with a pick plate for lunch. Walk on the beach at sunset. November 2: Kangaroos on the beach at sunrise. What’s most amazing about these photos is not the first rays lighting up the sky, the fresh feel of the day beginning, or the iconic kangaroos getting their feet wet in the ocean. It’s the fact that we were up and out the door at sunrise! 😉 Charging: As noted in our previous post, we just plugged our EV into one of the cabin power points while the car was parked. We had a full tank of “fuel” by the time the sunrise and kangaroos appeared. The staff were very accommodating and friendly ☺️.
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October 26-29. We checked into The Coast Motel in Yeppoon, for three nights.
Nice place, with a pool, laundry, room balcony, tavern next door and undercover shaded parking. During the middle day heat, we caught up on some of the necessities of life, including work (coding and a virtual meeting), laundry. We’re not sure about the stocking lint filter on the dryer. We chipped away at the seemingly endless admin of preparing to move into our new home, thousands of kilometres away, in Emerald Victoria, where the temperature is less than half that in Yeppoon. I think we’ll be in for a shock when we eventually go home. In the cooler parts of the day, we gave ourselves a reprieve, with a morning coffee from Two Sisters Coffee Bar in nearby Cooee Bay, a visit to the Wreck Point Scenic Lookout. One day we drove down to Emu Park, with the soldier crabs and metal emus. We ate lunch there, watching several people stroll past in Oktoberfest clothing. We also had several visits to Yeppoon Main Beach, mentioned in my previous post. Charging: I don’t know why there are no EV…
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We left Capricorn Caves, near Rockhampton heading north again along the Bruce Highway…
…along the most empty stretch of the trip, towards Mackay. Passed signs like “Are we there yet?” and “Still a long way to go, kids”. Stopped for coffee at the Marlborough Service Station. The staff were lovely. Fran may have been influenced by the free churro with coffee offer. Carmila: Stopped for the toilet and to buy some Kit Kats, to support the local sugar industry 😉. It’s all sugar cane fields from here to Mackay (and beyond). Great to see some green after hundreds of kilometres of dried out landscape. We noted the signs “Use your cane train brain” and looked out for cane trains. We stopped at the Koumala Hotel for lunch, but it turns out today isn’t a kitchen cooking day. So we ventured off the highway to Sarina Beach Motel’s on site restaurant for a couple of burgers. We had stayed here in December. Tom tried to grab a coconut from a tree for dessert, but was unsuccessful. We drove through the suburbs of Mackay, then on to Cape Hillsborough Nature Tourist Park, where we’ll…
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Sometimes it’s a bit of a lottery when booking somewhere new and unseen. O
ften, we hit the jackpot, like we did here at Cape Hillsborough Nature Tourist Park. It’s a caravan, camping and cabin park, in a national park, with beaches, mangroves, stunning landscapes and rock formations, walks, a couple of kangaroos hopping around the park and a whole mob coming out for sunrise on the beach each morning. We’ll be making or own meals for a few days. Delicious fruit salad and yogurt is a great start. Stay tuned for more photos, including the kangaroos on the beach. Charging: The staff were very helpful. When booking, they said we could plug into a power point at the cabin. But when we got there, we discovered that our particular cabin had no outside power point. We ran the cable through the sliding door to an inside power point, but when the small bugs (midges?) started biting we closed the door fully. I asked at reception and they said I could use the adjacent vacant cabin’s outside power point, and later a vacant caravan site. All 15A (3.6kW) which is pretty…
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We took the afternoon tour through the Cathedral Cave at Capricorn Caves.
Our guide, Amber, told us about it collapsing every 10,000 years or so; the unique resident endangered fern; how the bat poo is the foundation of the local ecosystem; and how the stalactites and stalagmites here only grow when it rains. Seeing the tall tree roots growing in mid air from ceiling to floor was fascinating. We loved the acoustics in the cathedral (complete with church pews) as they played “Hallelujah” through some hidden speakers with a pitch black interlude. We did our best Indiana Jones on the way out through tight twisting tunnels and suspended bridges.
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Just north of Rockhampton, we stopped for a couple of nights at Capricorn Caves, in one…
…n Caves, in one of the on site cabins. The street is just after a collection of rusting old cars, which makes me glad that the Tesla body is pressed aluminium (no rust). The on site wifi and the phone call reception each only had about one bar of signal strength, so we got a bit creative for internet. Somehow, the Tesla had the best internet connection, so we watched a few episodes of “Upload” in it before bed. Ironically, the story starts in the future with someone dying in a self driving car 😮. For laptop work, we pretended we had StarLink, by positioning an iPhone on the roof of the Tesla, and hot spotting from it. We cooked meals and took special precaution not to wear another one on a white top. We quickly chilled a few cans of ginger beer in the freezer, but forgot them for a day. Fortunately, they didn’t explode in there, but they were close! We took one of the cave tours, which I’ll post separately. Charging: We arrived with about 80% after charging in Rockhampton. We topped…
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After three days in and around Yeppoon, we headed back inland to Rockhampton.
We parked next to the library and grabbed lunch and a coffee at The Two Professors cafe. We found Fantastic Furniture to try out some lounge options, much to the amusement of other customers. The lounge is not for the Tesla, but for our soon to be new home in Emerald, Victoria. Not enough boot space to transport it from here, though 😉. Next, Capricorn Caves. Charging: Three days ago we arrived in Yeppoon, with 70% battery charge. There was nowhere in Yeppoon to charge. After a few days trips, sentry mode etc, we left Yeppoon with 20%, arriving in Rockhampton with 9%, (37km) as predicted by the Tesla’s navigation. We turned off the air con fan for the rear, which was probably triggered by the luggage weight on the back seats. The Tesla only shows Tesla branded chargers en-route, and warns if it can’t find any. There are no Tesla superchargers in far North Queensland, yet. But we can type in a town’s name and “charge” to navigate to other branded chargers. That took us to the…
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Hey, I just noticed that we nearly have a thousand followers 😮, since starting this…
…travel blog in December. Thank you to all of you who have taken an interest, left a comment, asked questions and encouraged us along the way 🥰. We seem to have hundreds of people who view and like our posts, but haven’t “followed”. Can you please help us tip over the 1000 mark? Please do this: 1. Tap on “Tesla Tripping” to view our profile. See screenshot. 2. Tap on the “…” button. 3. Tap on “Follow” so it changes to “Following”. If it already says “Following”, then you’re already part of the thousand – thank you ❤️
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Stopped for a simple eggs on toast lunch in Mount Larcom, which seems to just have a…
…cafe, park and a charger. Now, on to Yeppoon for a few days. Charging: We had charged the night before at our motel. In Mount Larcom, there’s a single Yurika/QESH/Chargefox DC charger, so we plugged in to top up while we had lunch. Like all of the QESH charge sites we’ve seen, there’s unfortunately only one DC charger here.
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During our stay in Yeppoon, we strolled along the main street next to Main Beach a few…
…ain Beach a few times. It’s probably the prettiest (and shadiest) part of Yeppoon. The difference in the tide here is stark, as you can see in the photo with the ocean lapping at the bottom of the stairs, but later over 100m away. The humans are similar: during the heat of the day, there’s hardly anyone around, but at night the street is buzzing with people in eateries. Lunch at Lure Living was a delight, with island vibes and a view of the ocean and the Keppel Islands. Keppel Kraken is a fun water park for the kids and young at heart, with tentacles and water jets to cool down from the heat. At the south end, there’s a popular lagoon pool with an infinity edge. We managed to grab an ice-cream seconds before the kiosk closed 🍦. More about the rest of Yeppoon and our accommodation later. Charging: According to PlugShare, there’s nowhere in or around Yeppoon for EV charging. We had previously charged in Mount Larcom and hadn’t charged in Rockhampton on our way through. So, we have 70%…
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What shall we do on this stinking hot day?
I know, let’s walk around in the sun, buy hot food and drink hot coffee! Well, we did! Highly recommend Eumundi markets. We visited on a Wednesday and it was absolutely packed, visitors hoping for a bargain, a “completely organic” ointment that cures all or some gadget they didn’t know they needed in their life. Delicious arancini balls and the obligatory Dutch poffitjes (kind of mini pancakes) were devoured, Fran bought us two candle holders made from Australian banksia seed pods. Many visitors meant many cars. We parked in the $9 grass car park right next door, with everyone else, in the baking 36° heat. We had perishable food in the car, so we put up the windscreen shade and turned on the air con for a few hours while we wandered the markets and had morning tea. No hot engine or fumes. The best part was pre-cooling the Tesla and revelling in it at the end of our wanderings. Charging: Oddly, no public chargers in Eumundi. We arrived with 34% battery, having stayed in Marcoola the…
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We headed north west from Eumundi.
Stopped briefly at the shopping center in Gympie, then on past one of the biggest solar farms we’ve seen, in Woolooga. Stopped to grab a toasted sandwich and pat a dog at Woolooga Trader Coffee Co, then on towards Biggenden. We picked this route, just because we hadn’t taken it before. The road wound through more very dry landscape, with sections of narrow roads (one sealed lane shared by both directions), dirt road, cattle grates, unfenced cattle next to the road. Charging: We arrived in Gympie, to use that Tesla Supercharger for the first time. It’s great to have shade in the covered car park. But there are no signs, so it took a couple of laps to find it. The signage really needs improving at sites like this. We arrived with 15% battery, having not charged since leaving Victoria Point (Brisbane) a few days ago.
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Kept driving north through the parched Queensland countryside.
Stopped at Beiers Park in Biggenden in a rare patch of green and shade to eat our toasted sandwich, while serenaded by a couple of magpies. (See my comment for the serenade video). Then on to Miriam Vale for a fifteen minute stretch under the gaze of the huge bat population (zoom in on the trees in the photo). Tonight, will stay down the road at Koorawatha Homestead Motel. Charging: We charged to over 90% at Gympie earlier in the day. We recharged during our fifteen minute stretch in Miriam Vale, only to about 45%, at the QESH/Yurika/Chargefox charger. No need to wait around longer, since we plan to top up to over 90% tonight, while we sleep, at the motel. 12 hours on a 2.4kW power point should give us about 30kWh, which is 50% of our tank.
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Just north of Miriam Vale is Koorawatha Homestead Motel, our home for the night.
Great value, setting and family run service. We stayed here before in January. The manager, Tim, son of the owner, has grown a substantial beard since we were last here. We ordered room service for dinner. Tim asked about our experience with the Tesla. We told him how we had been up and down the east coast of the country since we last saw him and how the car had been great. Tim said he was interested in maybe getting a Tesla, so Tom took him for a spin up the Bruce Highway. Large 4WD and utes stop don’t fit under the awning, but it’s great for our sedan in the shade. Our previous stay here, in this post: https://www.facebook.com/100088529584679/posts/123737760587210/ Charging: We asked if, like on our last visit here, we could plug the car into one of the power points outside our room. Tim said that was fine, but then we discovered that our allocated room number 5 didn’t have a power point, so Tim swapped us over to room 2. He even came to check that we had it working okay. It’s a…
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Further north from Wellington Point to Mudjimba, at the top end of the Sunshine Coast in…
…nshine Coast in Queensland. Lunch (veg nachos and corn fritters) at High Tide Bar Grill & Cafe. A walk on the beach, as we watched a few jumbos descending to Sunshine Coast Airport. We booked a room, last minute (as always), down the road at Ramada Marcoola Beach Resort. Nice place, with pool, bistro, bar, gym, beach. The staff are nice, but we did get a cold sales call asking if we are interested in time share. We took a swim (more of a float, really) in the pool. After the hot day, the pool was warmer than the air above, so we didn’t want to get out. Dinner at the bistro (veg curry and Thai salad). A morning walk up the road to get coffee from Cuba St. Coffee Roasters. They have two branded old cars. The rust has actually fallen in piles under the cars. Cool look, though. We briefly sat on the chair outside the cafe, until we realised that the BMW parked there was pumping fumes at us, in order to keep the air con going for the owner. How did we ever think that breathing this stuff…
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We ventured north to Wellington Point, east of Brisbane, to stay with two wonderful…
…h two wonderful humans, Ross and Sharon. They were Tom’s youth leaders when he was well, a youth! This was of course many many many years ago now! Such fun reminiscing with them. Enjoyed some delicious home cooked roast beef, salmon mornay and quite yummy rocky road. They did however lock Fran in the toilet one night which apparently was by accident. We’ll never know! Fran was forced against her will into retail therapy too. It was a tough time. We explored both Wellington Point and Victoria Point, both adorned with stunning waterfront and picnic areas. We sought a caffeine fix and unbelievably sweet strawberries grown and sold at Wellington Point Farm and an epic vanilla latte at Flannery's Victoria Point. A must stop at Pet Barn was just what the doctor ordered. Fran fell in love with a cat there. Given we are trying to preserve our vegan leather seats in the Tesla, we decided against a cat purchase, for now ……… Charging: We charged in the garage of our hosts, but we had to connect…
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We popped into “Pac Fair”, as the locals call it, in the Gold Coast, Queensland. Hug
e place. Even had its own moat and bridge in the middle 😉. Vincent and Rika (a couple who have been following our Tesla travels) generously invited us to dinner at Hatsuhana Japanese Restaurant - SeaWorld Resort, and later to the local Tesla meetup, back at Pac Fair. The meet up consisted of several other Gold Coast Tesla lovers parking in the shopping centre carpark, like a bunch of newly licenced P platers, swapping Tesla knowledge and our experience on road trips. The most entertaining was Vincent who is a walking encyclopaedia of Tesla knowledge. Thank you to all who joined us. Fun time! Next morning, we checked out of our hotel, and drove north to Blue Bungalow, near Brisbane. Fran exchanged some clothes while Tom put the car in “husband mode” (which was just air con and YouTube 😉), to watch Chris Vanderstock explain the details of the Supreme Court decision throwing out the Victorian EV road tax. Charging: The Tesla super chargers and Evie Networks chargers are easy to find,…
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October 17, 18: We arrived in Mermaid Waters, on the Gold Coast.
We passed the Byron Bay fire, marked by huge plumes of smoke, that also reached the Gold Coast. When we crossed the border, our phones eventually adjusted to the Queensland time zone (no daylight saving). But the Tesla, for some reason, didn’t update, even after a couple of days. After a brief googling, we tried pressing the time on the screen for five seconds and voila! It updated. Since the car has its own GPS and Internet connection, it keeps the time updated without any manual settings. The highway into the Gold Coast is chaos. I feel like this road work has been going on for years. The road work has necessitated lots of diversions in adjacent suburbs, which then force more traffic into the highway just to get around. It took us half an hour to get a few blocks, plus diversions, to West Burleigh post office where we had packages delivered, when predicting where we would be on a particular date. Nomadic life! We’re staying at Mermaid Waters Hotel until Saturday morning. It includes…
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Visiting a wildlife park without kids is such a relaxed and fun experience.
We’ve been to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary before and loved it enough to come back. The miniature train is a great way to get an overview of the place. The train runs on diesel, the fumes of which are inhaled by the passengers for the entire trip. It has been running for decades and a claimed three million kilometres which is very impressive. But that’s also an awful lot of diesel. It begs for a switch to electric. First stop: the amazing bird show. Next to that is the animal hospital showing a steady stream of injured animals receiving help. We chilled alongside kangaroos, koalas, red pandas, lizards and many others. Ended the day with traditional dance from indigenous performers.
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After a day of mostly doing work and life admin from our hotel room, we ventured out of…
…our office weariness for dinner and a walk on the beach. Veg curry at the Kurrawa Surf Club restaurant was yum. We managed to sneak into a reserved table and just made sure we disappeared ten minutes before the reserved time. We walked on the beach at nightfall, which was beautiful. I am still astonished by the many skyscrapers that poke out from the beach, to the horizon in both directions. Charging: We used the PlugShare app to find a charger near the beach and drove there from our accommodation. It was in use when we arrived, so we just parked next to it and found the restaurant right next door for dinner. A few minutes later, i checked the Chargefox app to see that the charger was now available. So, I ducked out quickly to plug the car in. It would be great if the ChargeFox app (and Evie Networks and JOLT Charge and The NRMA) could send you a push notification when your chosen charger becomes available. We “filled up” our half empty tank (about 200 to 250km) for $9. I definitely…
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On our way from Emerald Beach in NSW to the Gold Coast in Queensland.
First stop, for coffee, in Grafton. The town billboard shows jacaranda trees in bloom, and the town lived up to the promotion. We parked in the shade of the library carpark, at the free NRMA charger, next to John in his BYD, with a curious looking orange bonnet. He was returning from Canberra, for bike events, to Brisbane. I think he said he’d done the whole trip for zero dollars, including using NRMA chargers, which are mostly still free. I listened with envy as he mentioned that at some events all the BBQs were taken, but he just plugged his induction hotplate into his car to cook. The BYD has “V2L” (vehicle to load), whereas Tesla does not (except the Cybertruck). A power point outlet from the car would be very handy. An hour or two later, we stopped in Casino to get lunch. Fran opted for a healthy salad sandwich. But Tom was seduced by the pie, mash and peas 🥧. We again parked next to the standout BYD with the orange bonnet. It was our old mate, John, again. I didn’t see him until…
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October 15 - 17: We stayed at a B&B at Emerald Beach, in NSW.
A year ago we were looking to buy our new home here, or nearby in Sapphire Beach. As it turns out, last week we paid our deposit on a new home in Emerald in Victoria. It must be something about the name “Emerald”. Emerald Beach, as you can see in the photos, has kangaroos throughout the beach reserves. We had to walk around them as we went for a walk through the headland reserve next to our accommodation. One watched me from the shade of a tree as we hung out the clothes. The B&B was right next to the reserve, which was a great spot to watch the kangaroos and black cockatoos, while I did some more coding on my current app project. Coffs Harbour is a little bit south. We popped into the Park Beach Plaza there for a quick supercharge on the way through, while we found accommodation, and the next day for delicious veg crepes. Francis shopped while I (Tom) did some more coding in the mobile office that is the Tesla. Charging: We stopped briefly at the Tesla Superchargers in Coffs Harbour…
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October 13 - 15: We stayed a couple of nights in Bulhadelah, in a “glamping” tent. It’
s essentially a giant bathroom (with walls) with a huge deck and heavy duty tent over it, containing a studio room with bed, kitchen, dining and lounge. The first night, we had dinner at this understated restaurant (it looks like a fish and chips shop) called Warung Peri, which serves some of the best food we’ve eaten. Indonesian. We did most of our eating on our outside deck, watching the birds, cows and greenery. I had a fair bit of work to do, so the deck became my office while I wrestled with Xcode and SwiftUI. Francis sent me out for coffee the first morning. It was only a couple of hundred meters to town, so I thought it best to walk. Loved the sign on the counter at Cafe on Main 🦸 ☕️. On the second morning she had the Red Parrot on-site coffee, after a lot of fun in the (also on-site) petting zoo. Great place. Friendly staff. Charging: We asked about charging when booking on-line, but didn’t see an answer. On arrival, however, the iPad check-in form actually has a checkbox to…
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Time for a late lunch, in Urunga, just south of Coffs Harbour.
We split a burger between us, just before the town shops finished closing. Then a beautiful walk along the 1km (each way) boardwalk. Hot in the sun today, and no shade for the car in the car park near the beach. I just used the Tesla app to turn on air con in the car, to keep our food fresh, and prepped for us to drive on. Tonight we’ll stay at a B&B in Emerald Beach. Charging: No charging in town. It would totally make sense to have a charger here to be used while people walked the boardwalk. We’ll charge when we reach Coffs Harbour, at the superchargers.
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We left Bulahdelah fully charged, but ran out 30 minutes later in Nabiac.
Ran out of coffee charge, that is – the car was fine 😉. Charging: While Francis “recharged” with caffeine, I thought I’d try out the NRMA charger in town. We have used it in a couple of previous trips. But I figured I’d try NRMA new app and payment, since they’re moving them all from being free. At first I thought it might be broken because the charging cable was left on the ground. I put it away, back in the machine, before electrons spilled everywhere, needing a toxic cleanup 😉. I plugged it into our Tesla, which then just said “ready to charge”, so I figured I needed to set up payment in The NRMA app. It’s not obvious in the app how to set up payment or start charging. I couldn’t get anything to work. In the end, trying again, it just worked, without payment.
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October 8 - 13: We stayed a few days in our old home of the NSW Central Coast, and exited…
…through the Hunter Valley. We grabbed some meals with all of our local family: We checked out Patonga Beach Hotel for the first time (surprisingly). We thought it very busy, for a Wednesday, but the waitress said it was “dead” compared to normal. Stunning place. It used to be a corner shop when I lived there as a kid. In Terrigal, we ate at 4 hands pizza. Another day, we grabbed some pasta from a cute little express Italian place “Il Toscano” and ate on Terrigal Beach as the sun went down and the local life savers practiced their wedgies while rowing. Erina Fair for the Snap Car Wash and lunch at Sage Cafe. We popped in to visit Fletcher, who is one of the biggest fans of our Tesla. In a few minutes he had used the console to change the colour of the car, the air con fans, and composed a funky beat. I got a chance to show him the newly added summon feature (he “drove“ the car using my iPhone app) and the boombox. Cessnock Leagues Club for lunch on the last day, on our way north.…
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Stopped for a few minutes at the Tesla Superchargers in Heatherbrae, while we decided…
…where to go next. After leaving the Hunter Valley, we had just finished crawling along with the traffic along the New England Highway through Tarro and Hexham. For most of it, I just enabled Autopilot to let the car do the driving, while I had a cup of tea. A couple of hours earlier, while parked for lunch at Cessnock Leagues Club, the car sent us a notification that I’d left the frunk open, when I’d retrieved my “emergency shoes” earlier. Francis volunteered to go back to the car to close it. I embraced my inner child by showing my mum and sister on the live camera on my phone, as Francis approached the car. Then I used the microphone in the Tesla app to broadcast “push it all the way” through the Robocop like voice of the car’s boombox. She texted back “You are a sick man” while the guy in the next car wondered what just happened. It was late in the day, so we decided to just head for Bulahdelah for night. Charging: While we were getting our bearings in Heatherbrae, we plugged into…
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Last stop before the Central Coast, in Campbeltown.
We tried a couple of nearby cafes that were closed for the day or holding a private function. We came back to The Catholic Club and shared the roast of the day. That’s how we roll. Charging: The Tesla Superchargers are fast. By the time we had found somewhere to eat and come back to the car to get ID, we had more than enough charge, so I moved the car.
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Final leg to the NSW Central Coast today.
First stop for bladders, so we pulled into the next service center along the Hume Highway. A fresh spotting of bugs adorned the windscreen. But there’s no cleaning facilities at the chargers 😞. We pulled into the adjacent service station. I opted for the least busy section, which was for trucks, planning to get out quickly. I grabbed the handle of the cleaner from the bucket, and wiped the windscreen a few times. When I went to dry the drips from my hands, I realised that the handle was covered in grease! And now also my right hand. It took some time and effort to get that off, so as not to wipe it on the white interior of our car. Charging: On a hunch, I checked PlugShare and found that there are Evie Networks chargers just behind the MacDonalds drive-through, about 30m from where we were initially parked. We were only stopping for a few minutes, but we might as well charge while parked.
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Delicious veg Indian for dinner last night at Spice Affair in Yass.
The waitress warned us against the local tap water. We stayed overnight at Abode, Murrumbateman motel, just south east of Yass. Nice place. Weird layout, having to take your bags through reception at one end of the building, down a corridor back through the building to your room. They would do better to connect the path to the room’s patio. We just stepped over the garden to get in and out after checking in. We made breakfast of toast with bananas and peanut butter. Reception sells coffee and they were kind enough to use our lactose free milk in Fran’s cappuccino. Charging: We asked if we could plug in our EV and they kindly upgraded us to a room with a sliding patio door facing the car park. It worked, and gave us full charge by the morning. Obviously not ideal to drape an extension cord across the garden and path. But there’s something elegant and simple about plugging in your car and phone together beside by your bed.
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Reached the range of my bladder.
Quick stop at The Dog on the Tuckerbox at Gundagai. Grabbed my first smoothie of the season at Oliver's Real Food Gundagai. Then, off we go again, towards Yass. Tomorrow: the NSW Central Coast. Charging: There are six Tesla superchargers and three Chargefox / The NRMA chargers here. Only about a third of them in use when we pulled up. We only charged while we were parked anyway, for a few minutes. Super easy.
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We drove north from Mount Beauty, loving the long stretch of green valleys, but…
…increasingly realising that there aren’t really any lunch options along the way. We pulled in to Wodonga and grabbed some lunch and coffee at the Cube Cafe Wodonga, aka Ploughmans Cafe. When we left the cafe, I noticed a sign near a pedestrian crossing warning of swooping magpies. While I was admiring the tree in the courtyard, one of the swooping magpies introduced itself, with a click next to my ear. I maintained eye contact and slowly stepped away backwards. Charging: Charging bellies gives us a great opportunity to also change the car. We didn’t really need it, but best to use the time. The parking area behind the cafe has a row of Tesla superchargers. It was a bit of a last minute decision to charge there, select the charger in the navigation, so the car hadn’t yet had much of a chance to warm up the battery for optimum charging speed. But that’s all automatic. All we did was park the car, plug it in and walk away. It was a busy spot. When we arrived, there were two available…
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We drove from Bright, east to Tawonga and Mount Beauty, along a windy road that reminded…
…us of motorcycle riding. On the way, from Tawonga Gap and Sullivan's Lookout Mt Beauty, we could see the town below near the lake. The scenery was spectacular towards the town and then on the long valley stretch leaving northwards, towards Wodonga and Yass. But there wasn’t much happening in the town itself when we arrived – just a small market, coffee/toastie shop and a resident large bird metal sculpture. Sleeping Beauty. Charging: We charged the night before from a power point at the motel. Enough for today’s travels.
Formerly: Tesla Tripping
Come along on our EV road trips around Australia and Europe, and follow as we progressively electrify our home in Emerald, Victoria.
Join us on the road. We set off in late 2022 and drove eastern Australia in our Tesla Model 3 — Sydney, Dubbo, Armidale, Brisbane, Cape Tribulation, then down through Queensland and back. We've since upgraded to a Model Y.
We've kept exploring — Uluru, the Snowy Mountains and Gippsland, and a longer run through Europe in 2024. There's plenty more on the map, so come along for the next leg.
At home in Emerald, in Victoria's Dandenong Ranges, we're progressively electrifying everything: rooftop solar, a home battery, a hot water heat pump, air conditioned heating and cooling, and EV charging straight from the sun. We're going fully electric, off the gas.
Got questions, or insights of your own? We'd love to hear them — please drop a comment on any post.