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Amber knew. AAMI didn't.
4:40am alarm. Snooze for 5 min. Scramble to get out the door by 5:20am — Erin to the airport. She's off to Airlie Beach for a week, back to her old stomping ground. Last night I told the Amber Electric app "Ready-By 90% by 5am" — pick the cheapest, greenest five-minute slots overnight and have the Tesla ready when I am. The Full Self-Driving (Supervised) confirmation email landed at 4:45 — partly for the barely-awake drive ahead, partly to play with on the NSW road trip in two weeks. By 4:48 the Tesla was sitting at 89% and ticking up to the target. No thinking required from me. Bolte Bridge came up lit purple as we crossed the Westgate — twin pylons against a still-dark sky. Beautiful, and I have no idea what cause it was for. Anyone know what was on? Erin onto her flight. Tesla back over the bridges, FSD doing most of the driving, me mostly trying to wake up. Then AAMI's safety-scoring app pinged me on the way home: "severe acceleration" on Heatherton Rd (38 km/h in 6.8 seconds —…
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Hey Siri, unlock the front door
That's the sentence I wanted to be able to say. It now works. It also took several weeks. Our old brass door handle had stopped working after an earlier repair — a replacement was on the cards anyway. Smart felt like the upgrade worth doing. The brief was simple: unlock with Siri, share a code with a visitor when we're away, and use a fingerprint to simply open while grabbing the handle. Bonus marks for Apple Home Key — tap an iPhone or Watch against the lock, like a hotel room. The Aqara Smart Lock U300 was the only one in Australia that ticked every box. $268 from Officeworks, matte black. 4× AAs, paired with HomeKit through our HomePod mini, first fingerprint added — easy enough. Fitting it to our door was the bit that should have been easy. Our handyman, also named "Tom", had the new unit on in an hour, only for both of us to realise it was wide enough to clang against the screen door handle on every swing. I'd measured. Apparently not well enough. That's why we call him "handy…
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Our battery refuses to fully charge
Our battery has stopped charging properly — and we've only done 500 km. Cue collective gasp from the EV crowd, and a smug "told ya so" from anyone who says we should still stick to dinosaur juice. Don't panic. Our Tesla's fine. Modern EV battery management systems are quiet little wizards — balancing cells, managing temperature, and reserving a buffer at each end of the pack. Tesla's own research projects their batteries to last over a million km. No — the misbehaving battery belongs to Marvin, our Mammotion Luba 2 AWD 3000 robot mower. After nearly 500 km of lawn, 665 hours and 215 charge cycles, he's started docking, beginning to charge, then quitting somewhere between 38% and 45%. Mammotion's in-app live chat sent me on a small adventure. Charging contacts? Clean and level. Indicator lights? Solid green. Voltage at the base station? 33.5 V. Firmware update? Did it — the changelog even mentions "optimised low-temperature charging efficiency". Still no full charge. This morning's…
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The 100 W parasitic rumour, checked
Short version: another Powerwall 3 owner heard our pilot firmware might be quietly leaking 100 watts to the grid, around the clock. I checked our own data — five days, every five minutes — and we're not seeing it. Here's the rumour in his words: "With the current beta they do see an issue where the GW is constantly drawing 100W from the grid even though the home is using battery. Tesla told them yes they are aware of the issues but will be addressed in the final release in July. Do you see that grid draw on yours?" The "GW" is the Tesla Gateway — the small box on the wall between our batteries and the house that decides what flows where. The claim: on the current pilot firmware, it's constantly pulling about 100 watts from the grid (a tenth of a kettle, all day every day) even when the batteries are supposed to be running the house. That's roughly 12 kWh a month, or about $3 at our rate, silently bought from the grid for no good reason. Annoying rather than catastrophic, but…
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Amber's new Ready-By EV charging
Amber for EVs has added Ready-By charging: tell it the charge level you want and the time you need it by, and it picks the cheapest 5-minute intervals to get there. I tried it for the first time today.
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Powerwall puzzle answered
Last Thursday's late-night Powerwall fix turned out to be a firmware tweak, not a Gateway swap. When Jacob from Sapphire Solar came back on 14 May to get our three batteries talking again, he arrived with a replacement Gateway in the van — so I'd assumed that was the fix. But the unit on the wall afterwards looked like the same one I'd been staring at all week, and neither he nor Tesla were saying much. I asked Jacob to clarify on Wednesday: it was a firmware change Tesla had been actively working on, not the hardware. They left ours in place; they just got the software right. Minutes after his reply, a Tesla notification I'd missed earlier turned up in the app, dated 15 May 2026, 3:15 pm — the evening of Jacob's visit: "Thanks for Joining Our Powerwall 3 and Powerwall 2 Compatibility Pilot Program. Your Powerwall 2 system has been expanded with Powerwall 3 and is fully operational. During the pilot phase, you may notice some unexpected behaviour as we continue to refine system…
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The yellow warning light win
The little yellow tyre-pressure light has been giving me the side-eye for a few days. Yesterday I went and did something about it. Tap into the Tesla's tyre-pressure widget and there it is: 38 psi all round, against a recommended 42. Four psi down on every wheel, all at once. That's not a slow leak — that's cold air doing what cold air does. The rough rule is about 1 psi for every 5–6°C the temperature drops, and Melbourne autumn has dropped a lot more than that since the last top-up. So, out came the digital tyre inflator from its sub-trunk box, target dialled to 42, and one wheel at a time. The first one's gauge read 36, not 38 — gauge variance is real, neither system is "wrong" — and the inflator ticks up to 42 in about a minute per tyre. Quick job. Garage stayed warm. The Tesla doesn't refresh its tyre-pressure readings until the car has actually moved — and that drive warms the rubber slightly too. After a short loop: 44, 43, 44, 44. A bit above the 42 cold target, because…
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Snuuzu: the mattress made for sleeping in a Tesla
Sleeping in the back of a Tesla sounds simple. It isn't. With the rear seats folded, the floor pitches towards the boot, with a kink right where the seats hinge. Throw a foam pad on top and you'll wake up at 3 am, sliding into the tailgate, with your hips trying to escape. The Snuuzu is a mattress designed for exactly that geometry. It's a 20cm-thick inflatable, shaped to sit on the folded rear seats of a Tesla Model Y (or Model 3, or Model X). Out of its duffel bag it looks like a regular mattress. The clever bits are inside: layered foam over a pressurised base that Snuuzu call "surface-flattening" — patent pending. Honest verdict on the surface-flattening claim: it doesn't actually flatten the slope. The floor still slopes down towards the boot, so we either back the car up onto a small hill, or use plastic wheel ramps under the rear, or sit the mattress on top of our Teraglide platform. But the layered padding is thick enough that the kink at the seat hinge disappears under your…
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Our Teraglide Pro: how the back of our Tesla became a kitchen, drawer and bed
If you've tried to sleep in the back of a Tesla (or most cars), you'll know about the slope. With the rear seats folded, the floor pitches towards the boot, and there's a kink right where the seats hinge. We tried it years ago in our old Model 3 with cushions and ad-hoc blocks of wood. Terrible night's sleep. The hips suffered. The Teraglide is the fix. We installed a Teraglide Pro in our Model Y Juniper in July 2025. It's a modular plywood platform that drops into the boot, expands forward over the folded rear seats to make a perfectly flat floor, and packs in a retractable kitchen drawer and a slide-out bamboo bench underneath. Gas struts hold the rear lid up so the sub-trunk — where we keep our Kings fridge — stays accessible without dismantling the lot. No drilling, no permanent modifications, no goodbye to your boot. Teraglide is made in Auckland, New Zealand, with renewable energy. They quote 42 seconds for set-up. We didn't time ours, but the day-to-day transition from "drive"…
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The Powerwall fix I can't explain
A week with no battery control, a late visit from the installer, and a Powerwall fix I genuinely can't explain — the Powerwall 2 + Powerwall 3 saga, concluded.
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Tesla Powerwall 2 Compatibility Beta
Sapphire Solar return on May 7 with Tesla's beta compatibility firmware to bring our 2023 Powerwall 2 back online alongside the new Powerwall 3 and Expansion. All three batteries hum for about two hours before the system stops dead. Several days later it's still on grid power only while Tesla investigates.
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Nine EVs up the Black Spur, in the rain
Low cloud, drizzle that wouldn't quit, and a convoy of nine EVs heading up the Black Spur — turns out the wet road makes it better. Met Jess (the organiser) and the cars at the Beechworth Bakery in Healesville just before 11. Mostly Teslas — a couple of new Model Ys, a Performance 3 with racing stripes, a wide-body Y running a serious aero kit — plus a Mercedes-Benz EQS AMG 53, also fully electric and roughly five times the price of our Y. Jess's group is open to anything that plugs in, which is honestly how this stuff should be: same silent drive, very different sticker. Quick line-up at the Maroondah Reservoir lookout, then north on Maroondah Hwy through the Spur. Mountain ash, tree ferns, taillights threading the bends — the kind of road that's almost better when it's drizzling. Quiet inside the cabin too, music on, no engine note from the cars ahead. Lunch in Buxton, then back down the Spur and home through autumn-leafed Healesville in fading rain.
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Our Tesla danced with the whole planet
On April 25 our Model Y joined a few thousand Teslas worldwide for the Worldwide Fantasy Tesla Light Show — a Tesla Owners Club (Vic) meet at the Box Hill South Supercharger, frunks and tailgates up, the whole row dancing to music.
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Does size matter? Tesla Model Y vs YL.
A six-seat Tesla Model YL turned up at the Worldwide Light Show meet — parked right next to our red Y, captain's chairs and all. Tesla had loaned it to Garry from TOCA (Tesla Owners Club of Australia), Victoria for a few days to bring along to events like this one, so we got to climb all over it before the show started! Likes: - The captain's chair armrests in the second row — cleaner than the bench in our Y. - The sub-trunk lid that magnetically clings to the back of the seat when you flip it up. Lovely bit of engineering. - V2L! We would love to have vehicle to load on our EV, like most models now have. If only we could cook food on our induction cooktop, while camping, from the massive battery in the car. The Tesla Model Y L and new Model Y Performance both have V2L. Unsure: - Six seats vs our five. The third row is tight — elevated floor, very little leg room. I had to stick a leg out into the aisle just to half-fit. Climbing in and out takes some practice. - The captain's-chair…
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Burning off excess solar fuel, in The Dandenongs.
Excess solar fuel is a welcome problem. The Powerwalls had been parked near 100% for days from a stretch of sunny autumn weather, the car not far behind. We "needed" to go for a drive to use some of it up. Up Mount Dandenong Tourist Road, past Kalorama, into the carpark of a lookout high above Silvan Dam reservoir. The reservoir sat flat and silver in the afternoon sun. Sculptures dotted the parkland, and a bench faced the view that was begging to be sat on. Home through tree-fern back roads. Plugged the car in to soak up the last of the afternoon sun before heading back out to Box Hill South that night, where it joined a few thousand other Teslas dancing in time to music — still at 80-something percent. Anyone else done a "drive to use up the surplus solar" trip — and where did you end up?
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Our first TOCA cruise to Phillip Island
25 electric vehicles, 44 people, one destination: Phillip Island. Our first TOCA (Tesla Owners Australia) cruise. Starting with breakfast at @Lilin & Co. The café reserved the entire venue for us, put a "Welcome Tesla Group" sign in the window, and had a TOCA recognition sticker on the door. Breakfast was a gastronomical work of art, the staff were wonderfully warm, and the coffee arrived in quantity. Inside, organiser Garry ran us through the day's itinerary before we set off in convoy. Next stop was the Bass Coast Market. We love a country market. Fran found flowers at a stall that went straight into the Kings fridge in the sub-trunk to keep them fresh. This prompted a lively comparison with another member, whose Model Y had a neat little fridge built into the boot's side panel — compact and very elegant. Ours is bigger, less elegant, and was at that point full of flowers. Different philosophies. The market is largely cash only. There was some scrambling, but we were able to buy a…
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Siri, open the pod bay door
"Pod Bay Door, open." Siri obliges, and the garage door at the end of our driveway opens. From our iPhones. From the HomePod Mini (HomeKit hub) in the lounge room. From Apple Home anywhere there's an Internet connection, the door responds. The new bit is a Meross MSG100 controller. After 2½ years of a small green four-pin plug sitting unused on top of the Rhyno opener, two thin wires into the PB and GND terminals were all it took to wake it up. Plug the Meross into a USB power point, stick a magnet on the door and a reed switch on the track, and run the sensor cable along the chain bracket — slightly fiddly, but a cable tie and tape did the job. Pairing with HomeKit took several goes; Wi-Fi handshake gremlins. Once it was in, it stayed in. In HomeKit, we named our garage "Pod Bay Door" — a small tribute to 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Tesla Sentry Mode image is a nod to HAL's electronic red eye. In the movie, when asked "HAL, open the pod bay door", it replied with menacing efficiency…
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Two new Powerwall batteries, installed by lunchtime
Jacob and Nathan from Sapphire Solar arrive at 7:22 am and have a Powerwall 3 plus Expansion mounted by mid-morning. The 2023 Powerwall 2 is moved to a new spot, waiting on the firmware update that lets old and new talk.
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Coffee Kombi in the Lost Woods, begging for a battery
Back again at The Lost Woods Market in Emerald — second Saturday of every month, held under the gum trees beside the Puffing Billy Railway line. We've been a few times now, lately with our daughters Amber and Erin. Stalls thread between the trunks, someone's built a tiny gnome village into the base of one tree, and the air smells of pine needles. Mostly. Volks Coffee — a beautifully restored blue VW Kombi (plate CAFEVW) with a full espresso rig built into the back. Clever, gorgeous, exactly the sort of thing this market does brilliantly. It's also running on a petrol generator sitting in the middle of the van. And it isn't alone — there must have been a dozen of them across the marquees, humming and stinking their way through the trees. Same back row as last year, same fumes. Together they pull a forest market back towards the noisy, smelly thing a forest market is supposed to be an escape from. I keep thinking: what if every stall ran on a battery instead? An old Powerwall 2 the size…
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Trapped, in our own garage
Picture the scene: Fran's about to take the Tesla out for the morning, and the garage door has decided this is the day it gives up. It would whirr to life, lift just enough to taunt us, then refuse to budge any further. Nowhere near enough to drive a Tesla through. The door had been a fraction slower to open over the previous few days, but I'd put that down to the cold autumn mornings. Apparently it had been building to retirement. I had absolutely no idea what was actually wrong, so I did the modern equivalent of waving frantically at a passing tradie — I messaged Jesse at JB Garage Doors & Gates at 9.07 am with a couple of bewildered photos of the door's innards. Six minutes later he replied: a torsion spring. Sure enough, scrolling back through my own photos, there it was — that long black thing across the top, snapped clean in two with the original installer's orange "CAUTION — SPRING IS LOCKED" tag still cheerfully dangling off it. $550 to swap the pair, 3–5 pm slot the same day.…
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A knocking tree, and a call to the SES
Knock knock. Who's there? Cracked tree... Walking along the Puffing Billy Railway line, not far from home, we heard some dull knocking sounds. When we came back through a while later, the knocking continued. We rang the SES to say "I'm no tree-ologist, but I think there's a dodgy tree out here". A few minutes later, the knocks stopped, replaced by a crack and a fall. Called the SES again, and called Puffing Billy to stop the train coming back through from Emerald. We hung around for nearly an hour with other passers by, stopping cars, directing traffic, and clearing the road. A couple of other locals just happened to have a chainsaw in their boot. Most of it cleared before the emergency vehicles arrived to take over. Great community effort. The road is open again, but I think the boom gate controller box will take some time to fix.
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Adding a second battery
When Lightning Energy installed our Powerwall 2 back in December 2023 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 start fresh with new hardware. For me, that…
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Heat pump testing — how fast does it heat?
In my December post about our heat pump installation, I mentioned that one of the reasons I chose Emerald was the integrated app. It shows the tank capacity, water temperature, outdoor temperature, and lets me turn it on and off or activate Boost Mode remotely. I've since used it to answer a question: how long does it actually take to heat the water, and does outdoor temperature make a difference? Over the past couple of months, I've been taking semi-random screenshots of the Emerald app at intervals through the day, tracking the water temperature as it heats from "Low" (around 25–30°C) up to the 60°C target. I did this on 11 different days, with outdoor temperatures ranging from about 14°C to 32°C. I then used AI (Claude, by Anthropic) to read all 87 screenshots, extract the data, and plot it on a chart. The chart shows each day's heating curve overlaid, with the lines colour-coded by outdoor temperature — red for hot days, blue for cool days. We might expect to see the warmer days…
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Why ducted air conditioning is inefficient
Ducted air conditioning (or heating) is inefficient. Let me explain, and see what you think. I am not a fan (pun intended) of ducted. It seems to be very inefficient. But only one in five air con sales reps seem to agree with my reasoning. At our previous home, in Saratoga NSW, we had a large (10kW) ducted air con system upstairs, which included all the bedrooms. When we just wanted to cool or heat one room, we tried to close the door of that room. But the door would slam shut and whistle, as the air would try to escape. The ducted air con had one or two outlets in each room’s roof. It had one shared return vent in the hall. Turning on the air con in a single room, the air needed to return to the hall to circulate. Closing the door blocked that path and made the pump work extra hard. The thermostat was also in the hall, as part of the control unit. We could set the target temperature of a room to say 22°C, but the room might cool down to 18° before the hall thermostat would register…
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Grok AI is on its way to my Tesla
Incoming software update. Grok AI 🤖
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A sandal saves the tailgate
High tech “sandal” to prevent the tailgate from hitting the wall. I typically reverse into car parks. But that often leaves not enough space to open the tailgate. I wasn’t sure whether it would clear the wall, so I wedged my sandal there, just in case. Lucky I did. I hadn’t planned to open it, but we had some leftovers from dinner out with friends, which I wanted to put in the fridge in our subtrunk before we went to the movies. It would be handy if the Tesla could accurately gauge if there’s room to open the hatch, or open it just short of hitting anything. Until then, I just have to use a shoe, or just move the car out and back in.
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Car charge now on the Tesla app's home screen
Woke up to a minor but very helpful change in the Tesla app. The house screen now includes the percentage charge of the car (shown in the screenshot at 84%). Very handy to see it all in one place, without switching to the car view.
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Wash or charge? Hedging Victoria's weather
Hedging my bets: If it rains, the car gets a wash. If it’s sunny, the car gets some fuel. Making the most of a “who knows?” weather day in Victoria.
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Hay bales near Emerald, lunch at White Wolf
For a couple of months, much of the green around Emerald turns yellow. Hay bales pop up on grazing fields. Speaking of grazing, lunch at White Wolf Cafe, in Belgrave South – our first time there.
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Goodbye gas — disconnecting the ducted heating
Goodbye gas! I finally organised disconnecting the ducted gas heating at our home. If only we could see the burnt gas pouring into the air, all the time, and not just when the condensation highlights it (as in the photos). Pumping carcinogens and greenhouse gases into the air that we breathe. It’s nuts. It was costing us up to $528 per month to run the heating in winter. Our replacement air conditioning will be closer to free, thanks to our solar and battery. We recently also replaced our gas hot water with a heat pump. Our one remaining gas appliance is our stove top. Once that’s gone, we will save $35 per month just for the connection fee. And no more gas! We’re replacing the gas heating with some split air conditioners. For those who might say “what about in a blackout”? Note the power point connection on the old gas heating. Our old gas hot water heat pump had one too. They both needed electricity to run. In fact, in addition the gas consumed, the heating used about 1kW of…
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Multi-head air conditioning installation
The original plan was to install a multi head system, with five heads (one in each of five rooms), and one shared compressor, outside. Due to a change of plans (see “Problems” below), we end up with three heads on our multi-head system, covering our downstairs living area (lounge, dining, kitchen), master bedroom, and guest room. Configuration: Shared compressor: 18kW (though much lower in actual use) Head 1: Master bedroom: 2.8kW Head 2: Guest room: 2.8kW Head 3: Living area: 8.4kW Cost: The original quote was for a five head system, including two more 2.8kW heads and a slightly larger 20kW compressor. $14,776 Emerald 20kW with 5 x heads -$7,140 VEECS discount -$386 EOY Sale $7,250 Total inc GST Inclusions: Removal of Gas ducted system 1 (no duct removal) Double storey We paid about 20% deposit up front, and the rest on completion. As you can see above, the VEECS rebate/discount paid for about half of the system. As part of the project, we replaced the existing gas ducted heating. We…
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Third Tesla visit for sticky steering buttons
Third visit to Tesla to sort out the steering wheel buttons. Teslas have a Spartan appearance, with most functionality either automatically done, or simplified to just the two button/scroll wheels on the steering. For example, the left button controls music volume, skip and pause. The right button activates AutoPilot (or FSD), scrolls to adjust speed, push left/right to adjust the gap to the car in front. With great power comes great responsibility. It’s all very well to consolidate all the functionality into two buttons, but then those buttons must work consistently. On the first steering wheel (that came with the car), the left button was difficult to move left and right to skip songs, and the right button (cruise speed) would sometimes not acknowledge scrolling one kilometre up or down. Tesla (Oakleigh) replaced that steering wheel on my first visit, after reproducing one of the problems. Those problems were gone, with the second steering wheel. But it had a new problem. Now,…
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Putting the Teraglide shelf away (but keeping the fridge)
Finally unpacked the Teraglide shelf from the back of the Tesla. Only took about ten minutes. But I’m keeping the fridge in the subtrunk. Links:
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ICE vehicles also benefit from charging points
I’ve come across a few ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles that could benefit from charging points. Bear with me here. This ambulance, parked outside a nursing home, was running the engine, with no-one in it, I presume to keep the air con running, on what was a pretty hot day. Perhaps they were keeping the vehicle cool for a patient they were collecting. Fair enough. But, of course this leaks fumes (and noise) into the car park and reception, which isn’t great for health. I noticed that it has a power socket at the rear of the vehicle. I’m wondering if they could plug that into an electrical supply, if there was one at the parking spot (but wasn’t one handy here). This rental van I’m guessing has refrigeration, parked outside a butchers in Emerald. They made use of the external power socket, creatively plugging in from the shop. No noise or fumes. I wonder if it would be handy to have more accessible power points for these ICE vehicles? Or better yet, have electric vans that can…
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Brunch in Gembrook
Brunch out, down the Puffing Billy Railway line in Gembrook. So many beautiful drives in the hills.
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The best Tesla accessory? A rubber tray
Perhaps the most useful Tesla accessory for a road trip: this rubber tray that fits perfectly in the console for snacks. Bought from BIG W a couple of years back. Sorely missed on my recent trip when I realised it was still at home in the kitchen. I couldn’t find another at BigW. No, those donuts are not all for us.
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Tracking down a 117 L/hour water leak
Our water bill seems a bit high. Hmm, I’ll check if the water meter shows any movement while we’re not using water overnight. Next morning: Blimey: 117 litres per hour. I can’t hear any leaks – just the fish pond filter. I’ll try turning that off. There’s still a water sound, coming from under the porch. Can’t see anything in there. Call MEK Plumbing. Matt crawls further under the house, to discover that the pressure release valve from the mains supply has blown. Yeah, that’ll do it. Now to ask Yarra Valley Water to please discount our bill. 🦸🏻♂️ Heroes of the story: Helen for pointing out that our bill was much higher than hers. Francis for coordinating the checking and fix. Matt for sliding through the mud to fix it.
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First Tesla service call: a new wheel
First service call for our Tesla Model Y. Replacing our loaner wheel with a new wheel. As you can see in our posts from a few weeks ago, we hit a pothole, damaging our left rear wheel. At the time, we only knew that we had a slow leak. We logged the problem in the Tesla app. They arranged for roadside assistance to come to us, in about an hour, to install a loaner wheel, and take ours away to diagnose. Today, Tesla replaced the loan wheel with a new wheel, costing a whopping $1319. I asked them to clean the damaged wheel and put it in the back of the car. In the photos, you can see the buckle and crack. I am wondering if it is fixable. When I booked this service in the app, I also asked them to fix the water in the light bar, and some issues with the steering wheel buttons. They replaced both. I’ll discuss the steering wheel buttons in a separate post. All covered under warranty. I had a bit of trouble figuring out where to leave the car. Several after me also mistakenly parked in…
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A surprise picnic by the Yarra River
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.
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Layers of forest near Warburton
Layers of forest, just outside Warburton, not far from home. The platform is too harsh for bare feet 😉. The car and trees were both powered by the sun ☀️.
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Dust on the reversing camera after 2000 km
The reversing camera focus seems broken. Oh, that’s probably the dust covering the back of the car. To be expected from several dirt roads during the 2000km trip I finished yesterday. No time for a wash, so a tissue wipe of the rear camera will do for now. The front bumper camera has a built in washer, which would also be handy here.
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Why are utes always the aggressive ones?
Why does it seem to be utes that are predominantly aggressive on the road? A few unnecessary and dangerous overtakes on my way home through Gippsland. Towards oncoming cars, or a kangaroo. Wildlife and police also out. A bit busy on the roads today. Glad to see that the latest software update on the Tesla now shows speed and details now on playback of videos.
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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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A Vegemite sandwich stop in Orbost
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.
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Bonang Road brought back my motorcycle days
Harkening back to my motorcycle days, enjoying the endless curves along the Bonang Road from Tubbut to Orbost, Victoria, leaving the Snowy Mountains. The Tesla handled the drive beautifully. FSD off, for some driving fun. I had to watch out for quite a few sharp dips, barely marked with crayon width paint on the road. This road has stopping spaces specifically for motorcycles (pictured). Yesterday, I grabbed some groceries in Bombala and noticed the "Welcomes Motorcyclists" sign. Before we bought our first EV in 2022, we did a lot of motorcycle road trips. As you can see from the photos from a decade ago, we haven't aged at all! 😉. I'd love to see some "Welcomes EVs" signs in regional places. My stay last night in Tubbut was thanks, in part, to the simple EV changer provided by Gippsland Climate Change Network. They are on to something!
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Misty drive from Tubbut to Orbost
Heading south, out of the Snowy Mountains, from my overnight camp near Tubbut, towards Orbost. Beautiful mist topped mountains, after last night’s rain. After about 20km of dirt road, I spotted tar, and another sign warning that there’s no petrol around here.
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Breakfast and a free shower in Tubbut
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.
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Creekside car camping in the Snowy Mountains
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…
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The best rest stop in the middle of nowhere
Wow, possibly the best amenities for a road trip, at this spot in the middle of nowhere (in the Snowy Mountains). Seats and tables, beautiful location, playground, water, toilets, WiFi. Even has a shower and laundry tubs. Oh, and a pizza oven. Hard to beat! Gotta love the various signs on the amenities (see photos). Thanks to Gippsland Climate Change Network and Chargefox for the destination EV charger here. It’s probably the only public fuel source (of and kind) for over 100km. There are no shops or food outlets here. Fortunately, I grabbed some supplies when passing through Bombala and Cooma, over the past few days. Instant kitchen: pop the Tesla tailgate, pull out the Teraglide drawer and table, flip up the lid to reveal the fridge in the sub trunk. After a couple of hours to eat and chill, off to find a campsite for the night, nearby along the river. I’ll come back in the morning to use the shower.
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Chasing a lone PlugShare pin to Tubbut
In search for a place to camp tonight, I gambled on the solitary green pin that appeared in the PlugShare app (see screenshot), west of me, way off the beaten track, across the Victorian border, in a little town named Tubbut. Plugshare showed no check-ins at that location, but the Chargefox app said it was functional. WikiCamps also showed some freecamp options around there, so it looked like a good option for the night. It was a beautiful drive, along some windy unsealed roads. I followed the navigation, but ended up in the middle of nowhere, I think due to the Apple Maps and Tesla map using different references. At this point, I wished I had Apple CarPlay, so I could show the PlugShare map on the big screen. Turning back a few kilometers, I found “the town”, which is basically just a community hall with add-ons. Fortunately one of the add-ons is the Chargefox EV charger. It exists! And it works! There’s a fuel bowser across the road (pictured), but I don’t think it’s been…
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.