Six EVs cover 1000km in six days

Seven adults and two children in six EVs drove nearly 1000kms on a Northland loop from Auckland and back in six days, ending the Better NZ Trust 2022 RoadTrip delayed from last year due to COVID restrictions.

A Hyundai Ioniq 5 owned by Vanessa and Robert Nicholls managed 1250km by the time it returned to its Hamilton base. 

Mark Buckingham brought his Tesla Model 3, Sean Dick and new tripper Adrian travelled in Tesla Model S EVs, while Margaret Baker and trust chair Kathryn Trounson were in Hyundai Kona EVs.

The original plan had been to stop at the Kaiwaka Hypercharger as the first gathering place before moving off to the Gumdigger Café and Kauri Museum in Matakohe.

Bad weather forced a change but did not stop Joe and Jane Camuso venturing south from Whangarei to join the travellers. 

In his role as Northland Regional Council rivers and natural hazards manager, Camuso drives a 40kW Nissan Leaf and has been instrumental in the installation of several 25kW chargers in Northland,  on the Crimson Coast route. 

The first night was spent at the Bayly’s Beach Holiday Park. 

Next morning brought a breakfast appointment at ‘Blah Blah Blah’ café in Dargaville with Steve and Dee Hobo-Tuck of New Plymouth who were doing a Northland loop in a campervan, in the opposite direction.

The road trip continued to Opononi via kauri forests – first into the Trounson Kauri Park to walk the 2km loop past great stands of kauri where several trees had been felled and left on the forest floor with one stump showing serious disease at its centre.

The second kauri tour was into the Waipoua Forest to pay homage to Tane Mahuta. 

After staying in Opononi, breakfasting at the Boatshed Café over the water in Rawene, the EV tour took the car ferry across to Kohukohu. 

“Rather than travel directly to Kaitaia we decided to drive west to Herekino to sample lunch at the Herekino Tavern,” Trounson explains.

The EV tour group then headed to Kaitaia for a night’s accommodation and the next day travelled to the Karikari peninsula in search of a great white sand beach.

Lunch was at the Mangonui fish and chip shop and involved meeting local EV owner Andy Hay and his MG ZS.

Kerikeri provided two nights’ accommodation and a breather from driving.  In Paihia the tour group held an old-fashioned EV event for locals to attend at the 25kW Crimson Coast charger on Williams Road.

Craig Salmon of Honey Paihia, despite isolating at home with COVID, had put the word out and a good number of visitors sought information about how to switch to an EV.

Campbell Sturrock brough his LoopCrew bright yellow Nissan Leaf as his family were very early EV adopters, having an EV house bus they travelled the country. Other callers included a new  MG ZS which provided a test drive to a couple, and a Jaguar i-Pace. 

One woman told the group she had been into Whangarei that morning to test drive a Kia EV6 and an Ioniq 5 but wanted to sit in a Tesla Model 3 as a comparison, which she ordered online. 

The Nicholls in their Ioniq 5 were chased down at a Kerikeri intersection by a woman who had just put in an order for an Ioniq 5 in the same colour and spec. Her next-door neighbour joined the gathering and planned to order an Ioniq.

A quick visit to the Waipu  50kW fast charger on the Auckland return journey saw Trounson and Baker meet several EV owners who dropped by to charge – the Camusos also calling to farewell the tour and Waipu resident Mark Stacey bringing his electric motorbike with feijoas aboard.