November 5th, 2025Queensland jaunts

I have found myself in Queensland a couple of times this past winter. Luxury boat reviews to do, and they won’t do themselves. And of course, the editor, as much as she loves the Central Highlands in winter, had to come along for the ride. And the Tesla provides a great ride – despite its diminishing brand. A few memories here.

Crush was out of control

One of the diminishing perks of being a writer is that from time to time you get a junket offered up by a company that wants some exposure. Back in 2023 Donna and I accepted a quick trip to the Brisbane Riverfire event which turned into just short of a post-Covid nightmare. We stayed at the invitation of Oaks Aurora Suites, unfortunately the lifts weren’t all working in this 67-floor building.
And just before the fun kicked off in the river a surge of tenants, friends and guests which I reckon was about 400-strong were trying to get up into the lifts at the same time. The problem was that the lift wasn’t all stops, it would only take you to your allocated floor.
The crush was out of control, so I collected our guests and made a beeline to the basement and got up that way. It only took an hour from when I left the room to pick them up from the foyer. And the promised “river view” was a glimpse between two buildings with no view of the fireworks and you were lucky to spot the planes as they flew past.

Fast forward
After a few conversations with management, Donna secured a deal to have another look at Riverfire this year. We had left our Tesla up there, as a week prior I had been doing some writing for a boatbuilding company – so it was perfect to fly in and drive home.
The over the top three-bedroom apartment Donna secured at the Oaks had been offered to us at an extremely big discount with a cost of just $500 for the night. Still big coin for a couple of journalists, but it was three bedrooms, so we got a few buddies in on the deal and halved the cost. For reference, to book this 66-floor apartment with views from the Story Bridge to Southbank is usually $2000 for the night.

Poor old Dad

One of the first planes to come over at eye level was the EA-18G Growler, with a window-rattling, discombobulating roar as it hit the afterburners and shot skyward only 100 metres away. Dad yelled out “I got the photo” and after closer examination it turns out he had dropped his phone in the sensory overload commotion and got a photo of his sock. If you scan the QR code about 2 minutes and 50 seconds in, you can see our building from the pilot’s point of view.

Rolling into Coffs with no aircon

All was forgiven with Oaks Aurora as they had certainly bunged on a fabulous night which was punctuated with fireworks in stereo from the two barges directly below us – what a feast for the senses.
We all said our goodbyes, Donna and I finished our stay on the Gold Coast – where the beaches are still recovering from that cyclone – and started the road trip back to the Central Highlands via Yarrawonga with the first stop being Coffs Harbour.
A quick plug into the map in the Tesla reveals we would arrive with 17 per cent power left. But unfortunately the car fails to consider it was around 40 degrees outside, and my princess likes it to stay around 18 inside, putting a big deficit in the battery power. As we rolled into Coffs with the air conditioning off, windows open and four per cent left in the battery, I dropped Donna at our accommodation, she went straight to the bar – and I gingerly crept the extra three kilometres to the supercharger. Made it but talk about range anxiety.

Tumbi Umbi
The next day we cautiously headed for a little place just north of Sydney called Tumbi Umbi. Great name for a town. I made sure I topped up three times that day. We stayed at the Mingara Recreation Club, a fantastic stop with club facilities and a supercharger just up the road.
A fun fact – a 250kW supercharger will charge you from zero to 100 per cent in around half an hour depending on the volume of cars being topped up.

Self-driving
Although I haven’t got the latest full-driving mode and quite frankly refuse to get it, I still have the self-driving mode which I use very occasionally as I don’t trust it. But when it comes to trying to eat a large burger while driving it is pretty handy. You just set it, sit in behind a truck, and it takes care of the drive.
However, I don’t trust it, particularly when overtaking and around other traffic, as it has a mind of its own. You can find yourself dropping from 110 to 60kph in a heartbeat which is a worry when you have someone up your backside who has no idea what is about to take place.
This is so common there is even a name for it “phantom braking” – so no thanks. I do however quite often use the adaptive cruise control. This simply gets set and should you come up behind another vehicle stops you ploughing into the back of it. But even the cruise control suffers with phantom breaking and picking up on old roadwork zones where they have forgotten to remove the speed limit from the maps.

The road to Gundagai
The next stop was Gundagai where a trip down to the RSL revealed the latest fashion in high-vis wear, and it looked as if gyms were a bit light on the ground. Not shaming anyone though. Best efforts and all that. But the beer was cold and the bed was comfortable. However I was left with a burning question as to why that digger was so desperate to get back to his dog on the tuckerbox.

Ripped off

The awards night at Yarrawonga was the final sleep before getting back to the Central Highlands and you can read all about that in my column about us being “ripped off”.
We stopped for a couple of top-ups including the Holbrook supercharger where Donna wanted to go into the church craft shop. I reminded her of how it would go, that there would be a couple of old ducks to welcome her in and she would be guilted into buying some old rough mis-fitting knitted scarf that would cost $50 and never see the light of day again. So that put the kibosh on that.
I stopped once more at the Albury Commercial Club for another quick charge before heading to Yarrawonga, a place completely devoid of superchargers. Wandering into a club with the tinkling excited sounds of the pokies was not as good as sitting in the carpark playing another game of solitaire while waiting to charge up. Still, you should move around.
So, I wandered around the club and reflected on a time when we were much younger and Donna and I had asked the guy at the front desk to summon a dear friend of ours, Michael Hunt. Commonly known as Mike. When Mike Hunt was called over the loudspeaker, applause and laughter rang out through the club. We wanted to claim credit but were too afraid so it was a quick exit stage left. And that was our 2025 spring road trip full of fun, adventure and a few pints along the way.
Scan the QR Code to see Riverfire in full action