Beer-motif toilets at Heatherbrae Pies, Hexham
Show 0 more photos Show 6 more photos Hide additional photos
We drove south from Kempsey towards the NSW Central Coast, stopping for lunch at Heatherbrae Pies Hexham.
The toilets and taps have an interesting beer motif 🤔.
Charging
We considered stopping for lunch in Nabiac, but The NRMA app warned us that it was in use, and the person there had thoughtfully logged into the PlugShare app, so we knew they would be a while. I’d like to see that wait time built into the charging apps, such as NRMA, Chargefox, Evie Networks.
We tapped on the Heatherbrae Tesla Supercharger on the car’s navigation, so it would precondition the battery for faster charging. At one point the Tesla warned us that it was a busy charging site, but when we later passed it, everyone had gone. Tesla wins in terms of keeping everyone moving quickly.
Since the Tesla chargers are on the opposite side of the highway, and it’s a busy road, we opted instead to use the BP charger on the south bound side. Just enough time charging for us to eat some pies. We unplugged at about 75% (from 25%) to give it to someone in a BYD who had just arrived. As I keep saying, we need more than one charger at these sites.
As for Heatherbrae southbound - it’s not too bad making that right turn in because there’s lights further up, and if it’s busy it’s only a short detour back to the roundabout near the pie shop.
At some point soon we’ll have the new site at Raymond Terrace that’ll be easier to access southbound.
I charged at Nabiac on the way up on Friday, managed to find it empty. Two other cars turned up as I plugged
In, and then a third one later!
I had issues with my zappi wall connector when I first got my Tesla, so would swing by to charge when I needed to while I was waiting for the sparkies to come back to fix the issue. I generally went and got something from GYG first if it was around a meal time, then ate it while I was waiting for the car to charge. That’s local knowledge coming into play, though. It would be more frustrating for people passing through, particularly those with families, and especially for anyone driving northbound as all the food options are on the southbound side.
In my Tesla tripping up and down the north coast this is just enough and on the last trip 3 times we arrived at Tesla chargers and grabbed last booth.
But the cars do turnover fast. When we were last at Heatherbrae we grabbed spot and then there were 3 waiting but within 5 minutes as cars left the waiting cars we’re charging
They told us that the restaurant at the Cassegrain winery had closed. The sibling involved disputed the inheritance couldn’t agree on a lot of the settlement.
We’ve never charged there as Port Macquarie is a destination charge point at the hotel.
Has anyone used the Tesla chargers recently and are there adequate facilities?
https://www.facebook.com/share/gs1iLQ7nqdrhuTyJ/