Around The World – Auckland, New Zealand.
My goal for the next segment of my trip is Auckland, New Zealand. This involved a train ride back down to Melbourne, a shuttle bus to the Melbourne airport, a flight to Sydney, an overnight stay near the airport and a flight to Auckland the next morning. Nothing bad or especially interesting happened, so let’s just fast-forward over that.
Oh, it was my first Boeing 787 flight, which I had been looking forward to, problems with lithium batteries and the plane’s fundamentally-flawed battery management system notwithstanding. It’s not just that plane, but all BMSs (battery management systems) in general. I am of the Church Of Bottom Balancing. If you have about a hundred hours to spare, watch the relevant EVTV episodes. Inside, the 787 felt like any other plane, but I did play with the LCD window darkening system for most of the flight.
We landed in Auckland in the rain, officially my 38th country. I connected through here in 1996 on a trip from Melbourne to the Colorado Software Summit but I never left the terminal, so I don’t get to count that.
The Kiwis are very paranoid about any nasty bugs coming into the country and destroying key agricultural businesses so they have an extra step for food inspection, and I am happy to comply. In fact I was so worried by the warnings given on the plane that I chewed the last of my gum and put it in the plane’s rubbish. I made it through without a cavity search.
By prior arrangement, I was picked up by my EVTV electric car buddy Nick Smith. We drove to an engineering shop where he was having a copper bar made for his Mazda Miata MX-5 electric car conversion project, then we drove to my other EVTV electric car buddy Steve West’s office and workshop. Steve and his Canadian (yay!) wife Dee have the only Tesla Roadster in NZ and also a Tesla Model S and a Nissan Leaf. They just placed an order for another Model S. You could say they’re a bit nuts about electric vehicles and you’d be right, but it doesn’t stop there. They run a trust called Leading The Charge which works for the uptake of electric vehicles, charging and energy independence in New Zealand. With the rest of their spare time, they’ve started a business called Charge.net.nz which will roll out nearly 100 DC Fast Charge electric vehicle stations all the way up and down New Zealand. I got to see the first charger up close and unplugged my first CHAdeMO plug from a friend’s Nissan Leaf who popped in for a quick charge and test the functionality.
We wrapped up at the shop and drove to Steve’s house where I’m staying in a luxurious apartment above the electric car garage. I met Dee and their four children, and observed in awe the dynamics of the West household. Dee made a special onion-free dinner for me!
My timing was excellent as the next day the Auckland Sustainable Building Network held a Smart Transportation Forum conference in the city center, this is right in my electric car / renewable energy sweet spot. Please excuse me while I share some details.
Steve gave me a ride into the city in the Roadster. Neck-snapping acceleration and it handled well even in the rain. We found the conference building and parked in a special EV demo spot out front, along with a BMW i3, a solar/electric enclosed tricycle thing and Dee brought the Model S a bit later.
The day consisted of a series of speakers with expertise in city planning and the impact of pedestrians, bicycles, buses, cars, dedicated lanes and the like. One fact I heard was $1 in car driving costs society $9.20 due to fuel subsidies, accidents, injuries, pollution, illness, etc. Gabe Klein had an impressive talk and has a book coming out soon, check him out at gabeklein.com
New Zealand is already in an excellent position, as it now generates 80% of its power from renewable resources, including hydro and geothermal. The grid is ready for another 10TW of solar to come on line to support full electric transportation across the country. The Mighty River Power / Mercury Energy company generates 100% renewable power now and supplies over 1 million homes with clean power. 85% of residences are capable of having a home car charger. Power companies give 30% off for overnight charging. The main theme was Make Cities Better For Humans, not Cars. City planners need to take all of the following and more into account: bikes, shared bike plans, carpooling, car sharing, light rail, move away from gas and diesel, more EVs, public charging, young people aren’t getting licenses or buying cars, working in shared spaces close to where people live, etc. Building more roads and parking garages is actually highly counterproductive. At the end of the day, we did a tabletop workshop to brainstorm on How To Get To Work / Hospital / Next Delivery / School / Holiday. We used sticky notes to write down things, the relationships between those things and tried to come up with potential solutions to any problems identified. Then I drank a lot of wine and ate a lot of cheese.
Back home that evening, we discussed things I should see on the rest of my trip, but I won’t give anything away quite yet.
The next morning I was ready to head into the city to do some sightseeing, but I quickly found that plans had changed. To support Leading The Charge, Nick and I am going to a car show at a race track Satuday and Sunday. We’ll take the Model S and put it on display and give people test rides around the track. Nick will pick me up downtown around 2PM, bring me back to Steve’s house to pick up all of my stuff, then take me to his house to spend the night as the track is only 10km from his house. No problem, I can roll with the changes with the best of em.
Steve dropped me off downtown, I walked to a small shopping mall and found a mobile phone shop where I bought a SIM card and a 500MB data plan from 2 Degrees for $21. I can refill with more data later if needed. I walked outside and found my way to the ferry and boat piers. Google Maps says there’s a Maritime Museum about a block away so I head over. The museum starts with the early Maori canoes and boats, moves into the western explorers, then into more settlers, fishermen and modern boats. They have an America’s Cup winning boat there and a replica of the trophy.
Nick picked me up and we ended up at Steve’s office. We talked for a while about the charging network and a guy from one of the power companies arrived to talk with Steve about how to set up an account, billing, construction logistics, etc for the charging station rollout. We then took the Model S to Nick’s house.
The next morning we’re out the door, meet up with the guy who invited us to the racing days and get to Hampton Downs race track. We head for the Mother’s Car Polish Show and Shine area and talk our way in without having to pay the $20 entrance fee. Score!
Nick and I attend the driver’s meeting to prepare for giving test rides but we don’t have the required paperwork for the car, unfortunately no follow through from our contact. All we can do is stand next to the car all day. We walk around and I drink hot chocolate to stay warm, it’s blustery and cold, with waves of blue sky and showers rolling through.
The track is doing DYM – Drive Your Mate. People can take any car on the track but they have to stay under 100kph, and cannot drift or pass in the corners, and most of the cars follow the rules. Lots of hopped up street cars plus many dedicated racing cars, mostly Kiwi and Aussie models. Other times the track is open for drifting, serious cars with lots of power at full drift through the corners, tires billowing smoke. Also a dedicated skid pad where you could drift your car for about 2 minutes. I saw one guy spin his car and end up in a large puddle at the side of the track, had to be pulled out by a Hummer. Another track-prepped car was trailered back, it apparently hit a wall head on, the front was pushed in and flat and both airbags fired, the driver did not look happy!
We spoke with about 20 people through the day, showed them the car, let them sit in it and play with the 17″ touchscreen. Everyone who stopped was very positive about Tesla and electric cars in general and we described the Leading The Charge trust and Steve’s upcoming charging network. Around 3PM we decide to give up and go home because of the freezing weather, lack of test rides and lack of interest by the mostly petrol-head attendees, no offense…
Nick took me to see his future-house plot of land and the storage area where he’s working on his car. He’s doing the final wiring loom hookups, then the battery boxes and should be ready to go. As we’re getting ready to leave, he gets a call from his friend Yaman who lives in the small town of Port Waikato / Sunset Beach on the west coast so we go back to the house, pack up, then drive out for an overnight trip. We give Yaman a quick ride around the block in the Model S, then sit down for early cheese, wine and fruit snack dinner. We watch Blackhat, a not-great computer hacker/terrorist movie, then a zombie movie filmed in Vancouver that was pretty entertaining.
I slept in, gloriously warm room and comfy bed. I thought I was late coming downstairs around 10AM but the other guys are still asleep. We got the three dogs together and went for a 6km hike through the dunes and beach right behind the house. Black sand and beautiful wildflowers. Spotted several chunks of pumice from the volcanoes upriver. The beach rescue teams were out training in two inflatables. Blustery but not cold. Got back to the house and the rain that was threatening opened up. Nick made an amazing batch of pasta with his made-up alfredo sauce and salmon, had two large servings!
Got packed up and drove back to Nick’s house. Spent the evening looking at Nick’s upcoming Miata build videos that he’ll send over to Jack for EVTV. Tomorrow is the start of my solo New Zealand adventure!
#LeadingTheCharge with Dee West, Steve West and Nick Smith
