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Adding a second battery — Tesla finally makes it possible
When Lightning Energy installed our Powerwall 2 back in December 2023 https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Anc2vKKqZ/ it was great. Paired with our 13 kW Enphase/Jinko solar system and 10 kW inverter, it's been handling our fully electrified home in Emerald pretty well — five reverse-cycle ACs, heat pump hot water, EV charging, and grid outages lasting up to nine days. But as we've added more loads, I've been thinking about expanding battery storage. There was a problem, though. The Powerwall 2 is no longer CEC-approved for new installations in Australia. Tesla stopped taking orders for it in late 2024/early 2025, and as of January 2026 it's no longer on the Clean Energy Council approved list. So you can't add a second one. And until very recently, the Powerwall 3 — Tesla's current model — was completely incompatible with the Powerwall 2. They couldn't talk to each other. That meant anyone with a Powerwall 2 who wanted more storage faced a painful choice: rip out the existing battery and…
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Surprise picnic. Making use of all the hidey-holes in the Tesla.
Let’s pull over here next to the Yarra River. Would you like a cold drink? I just happen have a powered fridge in the sub trunk of the car. We can sit on the camp chairs from the frunk (front trunk, since there’s no engine). How about a cheese platter and some cherries to go with it? Ok “platter” is a bit of an overstatement, but work with me here. The car also has kitchen utensils and a dining table. We might as well just stay here for lunch now. Charging: All charged up for free from solar at home. There are also destination chargers down the road at the caravan park. Links:
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Fast charging at the Bairnsdale superchargers.
It's conveniently located close to shops, near the centre of town, but it's right next to the entry of a very busy car park. There are only three charging spots. I watched another Tesla try a few times to reverse into a charger from a park opposite. Fortunately, other waiting drivers kept their holiday cheer. I tapped on the window and asked if they'd like me to park the car for them. She explained that it was her husband's car, who had apparently gone to the shops. She seemed very relieved to hand over control to someone familiar with the car. I parked it and plugged it in. After that and a cuppa, the car was charged up enough to take me all the way home. I had to do a slight three point turn to exit the car park when I was done. Did I mentioned it's a slightly awkward spot?
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Brief stop in Orbost to make a Vegemite sandwich, a cup of tea and to use the amenities.
Pop the tailgate, pull out the dining table, open the fridge. Easy. Charging: Fast-ish Chargefox charger here, maxes out at 50kW. But the Vegemite sandwich stop gave me more than enough to get to a properly fast charger in Bairnsdale. The cable seems to be in the wrong side, but thankfully it’s long enough to stretch across. Links:
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Breakfast, from the kitchen drawer and fridge in my Tesla.
I drove a few kilometers from my overnight riverside camping spot, back to the community hall in Tubbut. A free shower in the provided facilities was a welcome way to wake up. The rain eased shortly after I arrived. I boiled water using my induction stove, for a hot thermos of tea. Beautiful, relaxed start to the day. Charging: Thanks, again, to Gippsland Climate Change Network and Chargefox for the destination charger in Tubbut. Since I’m parked for breakfast anyway, I might as well use it. I have more than enough range to get to Orbost, where I’ll fill up using a fast charger, while I have lunch. Links:
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Car camping in my Tesla, beside a creek, off the beaten track in the Snowy Mountains.
It took me a while to find the site. Earlier, in my search, I pulled off onto two tracks that ended up in someone’s property. At least it gave some local kids an excuse to run outside to see what the UFO sound was I did a three point just outside their gate. I waved and grinned. A cup of tea and a snack from my Teraglide drawer, sitting in my camp chair, watching the bush life. Until the bush life started eating me (just a few bugs), signaling time for bed. I again wished I had remembered to pack a collapsible stool, to help climb into the back of the car. Followed by the commando crawl to get on top of the Snuuzu mattress and Teraglide platform. This is the highest sleeping option, which gives lots of storage space and a very comfortable bed. The only down side is requiring more effort getting in and out. Once I’m in, it’s great with plenty of room to move. Please forgive the “Tesla Tripping – after dark” photos. Hopefully it helps give a real world idea of the space inside. Sleeping…
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I wish my Tesla Model Y had a power point, where I could plug in my induction stove to…
…make breakfast 😞. What I need is “V2L”, which stands for “vehicle to load”. Unfortunately, my Tesla Model Y RWD does not have it. This omission almost made us switch to BYD, Kia, Xpeng or one of the many other EV car brands that provide V2L. Tesla’s CyberTruck, new Model YL, and Model Y Performance all reportedly now provide V2L. The Cybertruck has built in power points. The other two require an adapter plugged into the charge port. I can only hope that in the near future Tesla offers some retrofit option for my car. In the mean time, I just have to find a power point, in order to cook. If I had booked a powered site at this location, that would work fine. This morning, I just used the camp kitchen. My car’s massive (by camping standards) 60kWh battery provided air conditioning all night, and has run my camp fridge non stop, via the 16V outlet. It powers other mod cons, such as the lights, wireless phone charging pads, powered tailgate. For more details on this car camping trip, see…
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Good morning! Time for breakfast, after a great night’s sleep in the Tesla.
“Siri, open Tesla boot”. The tailgate opens to reveal a beautiful day, beyond my bare feet. Breakfast mode: 1. Pull out the Teraglide drawer and table. 2. Flip open the Teraglide rear lid. It’s assisted by gas struts, so it’s easy to lift and stays up, even with bedding on top of it. 3. Open the fridge in the subtrunk to get brekky supplies. This morning, that’s eggs, butter and milk. 4. Use the kitchen drawer bits to crack and whisk the eggs, add milk, soak some bread, ready to make French toast. 5. Stroll over to the camp kitchen. Fry the toast and boil some water for my thermos. Return to the Tesla. Enjoy my French toast, with a cuppa tea, overlooking the Snowy River. Nice. Links: Snuuzu: https://www.snuuzu.com/?bg_ref=4fKkJb495B&country=AU Discount code: TRIPPING
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Along the Great North Road to Wollombi, driving Mum home to Cessnock.
Stopping for a cup of tea and a snack. Instant kitchen and dining, using the Teraglide.
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Time for a break and a cup of tea.
The navigation says that the next EV charger is at Coolac, just north of Gundagai, so we stopped there. Wow. It’s a pretty bad. The chargers are great, simple and fast. But the site is woeful. The hotel is closed or being renovated. The toilets are port-a-loos, but are disgusting . I don’t know how much of that is due to infrequent maintenance versus just being the busiest time of year. There is a service station nearby with some food and hopefully better toilets, but it’s a ten minute walk away in the heat, and not an option for Mum’s walker. Some people were sheltering from the sun under the three tall trees begging the toilets. Not a great spot. Tesla/government really needs to ensure better location for EV chargers. We enjoyed a cup of tea from our thermoses, and some Christmas snacks (thank you Krissy). Some way further up the highway, we pulled over into Bookham, for a conveniently located toilet and a bit of a stretch in some broken shade. In the few minutes we were there, two…
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There are two ways to tell a story
1. Embellished: The mayor of Eurobodalla Council came out to welcome us as we rolled into Narooma. 2. Reality: We pulled into the Tesla superchargers in Narooma, to grab a brief charge, and so I could finish my half of the lamington with a cup of tea. Another Tesla Model Y Juniper pulled up next to us. The driver jumped out, said he recognised our profile as “Tesla Tripping”. He introduced himself as “Matt, the Mayor”. Mathew Hatcher - Mayor Eurobodalla Shire We had a good chat about how the council has been introducing EVs into their fleet. They’re trying to figure out if the previous ICE metrics such as 100,000km before replacement, are still relevant with EVs that are lasting much longer. Nice guy. Great welcome to the area.
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Part way through one of the Silo Art trails, yesterday, the sun was setting, so we booked…
…a room at the next town, at the Sea Lake Motel. This is our final overnight stop before driving the remaining 450km to home, today. Last night, almost everything in this small town was closed. The motel stocks refrigerated meals in a vending machine, for people like us stopping in at the last minute. Great idea. We chose a curry, microwaved it in our room, but then realised that the used by date on the two packets was months ago, even though the used by date on the outer packet was fine. We decided not to risk it, and happily made a picnic tea out of our car travel food. We informed the host, just so they knew. It’s the fault of the food company, not the host. Charging: I had planned to use the Evie Networks fast charger in town, in the morning, but another guest, also in a Tesla, pulled up behind us last night and said the Evie charger was faulty. A quick check in the Evie app confirmed this, and the PlugShare app comments showed it had been a problem for a while. As you can see,…
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We arrived a day ahead of schedule at Ayers Rock Campground.
We had booked a powered site, starting from tomorrow, but none were available tonight. The staff offered us the unpowered overflow campground area. Our original plan was to charge the car at our powered site, while also running the air conditioning and accessories. Without a powered site tonight, we had to charge up the car a bit first, so we could just run it off the giant battery. We used the auto inflate button on our Snuuzu mattress, added pillows and doona. We moved the baggage to the front seats, so the bed wasn’t obstructed. While car camping in Coober Pedy a few days ago, we discovered that even with our portable wheel ramps the car’s bed floor still leans backwards too much. So, we backed the car up a small hill as well. We used our fold up spade to fill in a couple of holes from previous campers. We set the Tesla to “camp mode”, so we could sleep in the back of the car at 20°, while it was 3° outside, overnight. The trudging to the toilet in the middle of the night a couple…
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Arrived in Port Pirie, on our way north to Uluru.
Most lunch outlets were closing, so we had a “picnic lunch” from our car fridge and food bag, by the waterfront. The giant silos backdropped the inlet with the wharf, bridge and black swans. The southern Flinders ranges in the distance might be the last mountains we see for a while. We stayed at the Comfort Inn. Basic continental breakfast included, at the on site Serenity Restaurant. Simple hot options also available. Charging: There’s a fast NRMA charger at the other end of town. But we opted for the RAA destination chargers that are next to our accommodation. 7kW fully charged us after a few hours overnight. Next time, we’ll ask for one of the rooms next to the chargers
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Off to The Macedon Ranges today, for a Mystery Adventures Picnic.
It’s basically a foodie treasure hunt. Great Christmas gift, thank you Helen 😋. First stop at 3 Little Pigs Gisborne cafe, for coffee. Then, on through Watt's Fresh Woodend, Kyneton to Malmsbury, stopping along the way for a food platter, chocolates, bits, drinks and bread. Picnic at Malmsbury Botanic Gardens, with a walk to the Malmsbury Railway Viaduct. Charging: Charged up at home yesterday using solar, even though it was a fairly overcast day. 100% charged battery was enough for the trip there and back, plus Sentry Mode and keeping the air con running while parked at each stop along the way (to keep food and cabin cool). Returned home with 8%, ready to charge up again. Easy.
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Movember: How did Marvin the Mower go, maintaining our lawn while we were away in Europe…
…for two months? I’d like to say that he effortlessly mowed our 1500m2 lawn. But the reality wasn’t quite perfect. On the plus side: from the other side of the world, I could use the Mammotion app to mow any zones of our lawn. I could have scheduled it, but didn’t. I occasionally watched from my iPhone, through the mower’s camera, to check the grass length and also general security. It did a great job of the areas that it mowed. On the negatives: Marvin got stuck many times on the half buried round log next to the charging station. Wheels would go either side of the log, leaving Marvin floundering like a turtle, unable to touch the ground with the wheels. After returning, we “fixed” the problem by using an upturned table, and later just a block of wood. Similarly, he got stuck a few times on a raised edge (pictured). There seems to be some recent software glitch, where the mower leaves an occasional strip of unmowed grass, one mower width from the zone edge. This became very…
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First stop (on the return northbound trip) in France.
Time for a break and afternoon tea, so we just looked in our general direction on the navigation map for something random worth the stop. Waterfall and cafe – perfect! This cafe’s decorations showed that Halloween is surprisingly big in random places across Europe. Crepes with sugar frosting. Mum: I think your crepes are better 😋. We spotted another EV parked there too – a Porsche Taycan, which costs about three to four times our Tesla. Charging: No EV charger here. We charged earlier while stopping for a cuppa, just before we crossed the border from Italy.
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Leaving Italy. So many toll booths, with different systems.
Some give you a ticket to insert at the other end, then pay. Some require payment up front with a tap on. Some don’t do tap on, so you have to use a physical card. Different booths for different payments. We reversed out of a few. Not a fan. After that, we turned on “Avoid Toll Roads” in the navigation. The most expensive toll of the whole trip was leaving Italy through a long tunnel to France. This toll booth was actually staffed. When he said “€55”, I asked “Is that just for this road?” Yes it was. The cafe had very little. We settled for a croissant and cuppa. We passed on the pokies. French/Italian alps along the way. Beautiful scenery. Charging: We plugged into the Tesla Superchargers just before the border crossing tunnel, while grabbing a cuppa. A couple of trucks had almost ICEd our access, but we managed to do some reverse precision driving around them.
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We headed north from Lucca, stopping on the coast at the little town of Lerici, for a…
…cuppa and a stretch. The toilet at the cafe was just a seat over a hole in the floor, so we looked elsewhere. The public toilet required coins, but after coins failed, a local told just that you can just open the door. BYO toilet paper. Charging: Much easier to find a charger than a toilet. We stopped along the highway near Ronco Scrivia and grabbed some lunch while the car connected to fast charging.
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A brief journey through the north east of France.
We stayed last night in Hotel Marso, in Amnéville. We paid to have brekky buffet there, but it was disappointing. We made some cuppas from our thermos at the Tesla before leaving. Along the way, for lunch we popped into the small French town of Lure. The cappuccino came with cream, which turned out to be “heaven” (quoting Francis). The staff’s English was only slightly better than my French (which is about six words). So, we relied on Google Translate to pick from the menu. But even then, when I thought I was ordering the five veg pizza, I ended up with something with meat. Still delicious. Lovely staff. Charging: While having breakfast, we plugged the car into the fast charger across the road. The timing was perfect. Both of us ready to go at the same time. The town of Lure has a destination charger up the road from where we had lunch, but it was too far to bother with. We’ll just charge when the next opportunity arises, in Switzerland.
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It finally happened. We ran out of power. No electricity available… in our accommodation.
Oh, did you think I meant we couldn’t charge our car? No, it’s fine. Our accommodation – a cabin park in the town of Knokke, Belgium – provided an EV destination charger. 100m up the road was an Esso fuel station that includes fast chargers and on the big price sign out the front lists the electricity cost per kWh along side the petrol and diesel costs per litre. And slightly up from that, the BMW dealer has an EV charger out the front. So many options. I spotted an electric van in one of the suburban streets. What I meant was, our cabin had no power. We couldn’t boil a kettle, but we managed to use the last drops from our thermos to make a cuppa. We couldn’t heat food. We survived, and mostly laughed it off. The manager arrived some time later and was very helpful and apologetic. She gave us a free breakfast hamper to compensate. We had a bunch of other minor hurdles that added to the comedic series of events. We picked this place in part because we needed to do some laundry. The…
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Stopped for lunch at La Place. Tasty fresh food and smoothies.
Cruising along the highways we see many wind turbines, and some coal power stations. Each wind turbine takes a very small piece of land, and can be surrounded by cows, picnic areas etc. The coal plants sit in a bit of an industrial waste land. Coal pits poor toxic dust into the air, and burning it creates more. It’s great to see the transition away from the polluting fossil fuels. Charging: No EV charger at the restaurant, which seemed odd. It would be a great place to charge, near the highway, while eating lunch. But there are chargers at our destination.
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Today we earned over $200 for supplying electricity to the grid!
We’re in Emerald, Victoria. We chose Amber Electric as our energy retailer, since they pass on the wholesale electricity price, which can change every few minutes. You have to be a bit of an energy nerd (like me), but you can make money from supplying power to the grid during peak demand, and even get paid to use power during high supply. Knowing the price is high makes you acutely aware of consumption, preferring to instead be paid to export. Boil water for a cup of tea, or get paid 20c? Okay, not quite that extreme. 😉 A cold morning and evening (high energy demand), combined with not enough cheap renewables in the grid, means it’s powered mostly by fossil fuel (gas and coal). The wholesale electricity price spikes, which pays a small fortune to anyone who can supply some power, including power companies, and householders who have a battery 🔋💰. If you’re an energy nerd and want to try Amber’s wholesale electricity pricing, you can use our referral code to get a $30 discount:…
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An afternoon jaunt along the Hillside Walk at Gembrook Park.
Tall gums, many wombat holes, dense bush opening up along the hillside and picnic areas. Charging: The car is always ready to go, charged up from electricity in our garage, powered from the solar on our roof.
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Time for some exercise. We walked along the East Dandenong Ranges Trail, which passes…
…through Emerald Lake Park, just down the road from our home. We walked to Cockatoo, about a 10km round trip. Lots to see along the way, including Puffing Billy Railway, tall fern trees and eucalypts, bridges, numerous fairy doors and even a couple of dinosaurs. The staff at Brunch on McBride in Cockatoo kindly made us a cuppa and sandwich, ten minutes before closing. We debated whether to catch a bus back home, but it seems you need a Myki card, and can’t just tap on with a phone credit card (like we could in NSW). The walk back was beautiful, but the few hills were testing. Charging: An electric car produces far less greenhouse gases than a petrol car, after about 38,000km. Walking produces even less. But we felt every puff of CO2 exhaling as we walked along the trail today 😉. Our Tesla stayed at home, slowly charging from the solar panels on our roof, on an overcast day.
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Stopped for cuppa, cake and a break at Cann River.
Sad to see that Squire’s Cafe burnt down in the past few weeks. Cann River Bakery was very busy. When we returned to the car, a retired couple were looking at the Chargefox charger (next to the Tesla Supercharger we were using). They were wondering how the whole EV thing worked. I explained that we just plug into the Tesla Supercharger and walk away. Or with the other brands, we plug in, then tap a card or a button in an app, and walk away. They asked a lot of questions. They’re thinking about getting an EV for running around town. I explained that they can just plug the car into any power point at home, and charge from their home solar panels. Onward west through Gippsland. Stopped in Bairnsdale for a quick lunch and rest stop. Then finally to home in Emerald, Victoria. Charging: This is probably the closest call we’ve had in all our travels. When we left Bombala, the Tesla predicted arriving in Cann River with 7%. At one point along the drive, the Tesla navigation predicted we’d…
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After brief meetups with some family on the NSW Central Coast, we returned Mum home to…
…Cessnock. After a cuppa and a couple of odd jobs we said goodbye. The three of us had a blast on our EV road trip from Cessnock NSW to Emerald Victoria and back again. Finally, we drove east to Newcastle, to stay at 291 on King. It’s a bit fancy but welcoming. I walked down the road to grab takeaway dinner from Bella Italia. Charging: The hotel installed destination chargers just a couple of weeks ago. I applaud their initiative. I was surprised that these destination chargers require your own CCS “Type 2” cable. This might be the first time I’ve actually needed to use our cable. I’ve used it many times before, but not out of necessity. I imagine that most travelers who would book here would be unlikely to have their own cable. Reception does have one spare cable to loan to those who don’t have one, in exchange for a security deposit. With either your own cable or one borrowed from the hotel, it just seems unnecessarily fiddly. The chargers require downloading and connecting using…
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We took another scenic detour, this time along the coast from Thirroul, stopping for a…
…cuppa, crossing the Sea Cliff Bridge, up to Stanwell Top, and out through the Royal National Park, emerging at Kirrawee for lunch. Charging: In Thirroul, we tried the first pole mounted charger we’ve seen. This one by EVX. It was a bit of a faf really. Apart from requiring our own cable, we also had to set up another app to pay for it. It has the typical destination charger speed of 11kW, which you’d normally get for free at a shopping center or similar. It was worth the experiment, but I won’t bother again. We only plugged in while we had a driving break (the usual toilet, coffee, cake, and a stretch). The place we stopped for lunch, in Kirrawee, conveniently had a bank of Tesla Superchargers. Ten seconds to plug in and walk away. The car was fully charged before we returned. We didn’t need either of these chargers to get to our destination of Erina. But, we prefer to plug in whenever we’re parked.
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Brief stop for toilet and a thermos cup of tea at Googong Dam, in the ACT, just outside…
…of Canberra. Nice quiet spot for a stretch. Lots of new housing up the road, sadly with dark roofs and few trees. Charging: We charged last night in Jindabyne. We’re aiming for Gerringong or Thirroul today. We’re disabled “Trip Planner” to stop the Tesla routing us through the Superchargers in Queanbeyan. So, it now shows arrival in Thirroul at -2%. We’ll charge wherever we park next, along the way.
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Like a kid in a candy store at The Beechworth Sweet Co.
But we showed restraint… until we went next door to the Beechworth Bakery. We took a couple of vege rolls and a cuppa down to Newton Falls, which are pretty spectacular for something right in the middle of town.
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On our way out from the Off-Grid Living Festival, we checked out some of the displays in…
…the Border Regional Electrification Events area. We had a chat with Paul about the Husqvana robot mower that was quietly cutting a patch of lawn next to us. All Seasons Garden Solutions: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091464130556 We chatted with Matt from Clenergy about a possible portable battery for camping, which can charge from the Tesla car’s 12V supply and from portable solar panels, to then use it for high power cooking such as induction stove tops. It pains me that this is needed because our Tesla doesn’t have vehicle to load (V2L) which could power the stove directly. Other EVs have this feature.
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We found a couple of creative ways to find relief from the 36°C heat today
1. Road trip to Warburton to wade in the cleanish start of the Yarra River. 2. Drive 1.2km above sea level near Mount Donna Buang, where the temperature dropped to 24°C. The river in Warburton was popular today. Many people set up with floating tubes, shade tents, picnics. We grabbed lunch nearby at BT Dubs Cafe. It’s hard to find a good view from the road around Mount Donna Buang. The best spot was this launch pad, presumably for hang-gliders, down a long narrow gravel road that leads to Healesville. No place to park and barely enough room for another car to pass. Luckily we only passed two other cars along that entire road. Beautiful drive. No worries about our engine overheating because, well, the EV doesn’t have an engine 😉. When we arrived back home, the bonnet feels no hotter than the ambient temperature. Charging: We have the standard (lowest) range Tesla Model 3. We can drive about 420km on a full battery. We don’t even really think about charging. We left home in Emerald with…
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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…
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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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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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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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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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Morning routine, leaving Bright
1. Tom gets up, showers, starts to pack. 2. Francis, while still in bed, finds a coffee shop (Wild Thyme) on Maps and Trip Advisor with an acceptable rating, sends the location from her phone to the Tesla. 3. Francis asks Tom to go get her a coffee. “The directions are already loaded in the car”. She’s already done the hard part. 4. Tom drives the car into town, following the navigation directions. Laughs at the dentist next to the lolly shop. 5. Tom returns with coffee. 6. Francis has made Tom a cup of tea in his thermos, and set up breakfast, but realises that we don’t have enough milk. 7. We pack up everything into the car and check out of the hotel. 8. We swing by Woolies to get milk, and then down to the Ovens River. Beautiful setting, to sit and watch the ducks. 9. We use our camping bowls, cutting board, cutlery etc to have a yummo breakfast of cereal and banana. We realise we left one of our two breakfast spoons back in Knoxfield. 10. We head off east of Bright towards Mount…
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Beautiful drive from Healesville, south past Blue Rock Lake.
Due to have a meeting with a client and Apple at 4pm. At 3:50 we spotted a picnic area turn off. Quickly set up a picturesque “office”, ready to get my head into work mode. Unfortunately, the cell reception dropped from three bars down to one by the lake. It was just enough to maintain the video call. Love the office decor.
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We continued our search for a new home, this time looking again in Murray’s Beach. T
hen we popped down for a walk beside the Swansea Bridge, and then as cuppa and cake on Caves Beach. 24°C – much warmer than -2°C in Cooma a couple of weeks ago and 15°C near Melbourne a week before that.
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Stopping at Marmalades in Yea for a cuppa and passionfruit sponge cake.
When we pulled into the car park, it looked like one of the cars had an overheated radiator, with steam coming out from under the hood. But we soon realised it was a Tesla (no radiator), and the steam was from some noodles they were prepping from the frunk (front trunk). Charging: Boringly easy. We parked, plugged into the Tesla supercharger, and walked away to get coffee. No credit card, app or fumes (except the noodles).
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Stopped in Moyston for lunch and a cuppa.
It claims to be the birthplace of AFL, which I believe is some kind of Victorian sport!
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We set the Tesla to “Office” mode. Tec
hnically, it’s just a profile like for any driver, but with the seat set right back and up. Peaceful in the park, and sheltered from the Melbourne drizzle. Cup of tea on hand, via the thermos. Air con without an engine. No interruptions, very productive. The #Tesla includes four powered USB-C ports (such as for laptops), two wireless charging pads (for phones), large screen, web browser, Zoom and camera, synced calendar and contacts and its own internet connection.
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Quick stop for toilets, stretch and a cup of tea in Yarra Glen, with a short top up…
…charge at the 50kW DC charger. The car has a new layer of bugs and dust from unsealed roads.
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Popped in to Picnic Real Food Bar a couple of times while in Mount Tamborine, Queensland…
…Australia. Francis described the coffee as “The best I’ve ever had”. High praise from someone who has sampled all up and down the east coast of Australia.
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Manoeuvred my way around the bollards with a three point turn again, at the RACQ…
…Chargefox charger. Chatted briefly with Scott (before me in a blue Tesla Model 3 with bikes on a rack) and Patty afterwards. Patty is today moving with his dogs up from The Sunshine Coast to Port Douglas. His wife is driving another Tesla. They are planning to “hippy-fy” their new place with EV chargers for guests.
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Found this great place, for $150 per night (last minute rates, I think) at Picnic Bay on…
…Magnetic Island. Walked to: - Lunch at Picnic bay hotel. Note my excellent burger halving! - Swimming at Picnic Bay Beach, protected by stinger nets. But the water is so warm, that it’s not really refreshing. - Delicious Italian dinner at Mamma Roma. - Walk along the esplanade with the frogs. Had a chat with our hosts about EVs and took Jeremy for a spin in the Tesla. I think they’re now planning to add an EV charge point in the car port and maybe buying an EV themselves. Charging: Oddly, there were no power points in the car port, despite countless lights and air conditioner connections. The hosts Jodi, Jeremy and Moira kindly allowed us to plug into a power point at the pool pump. I just had to run an extension cord out to the car. Now I get a taste of trying to power an EV if you live in a unit.
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.