Mini North Island NZ Road Trip II

Another short North Island New Zealand road trip. This time Waikanae to Hamilton via Tūrangi with a hop up to Silverdale, North Auckland.

Left Waikane 5pm Friday with 80% on board and stopped 92km later at Bulls Te Matapihi by the Bulls Community Centre for quick top up on the 300kW ChargeNet unit at 34 minutes and 24.5kWh for NZ$21. Shared the dual charger with a nice looking Polestar 2. Charge rate was 92.7kW peak at 61% SOC. See below (Polestar finishing on right):



Just time for a quick iskenda from the excellent Bulls Kebab shop and the use of the very clean Community Centre facilities.

Stayed the night at Tūrangi after battling gale force winds of 90km/h on the Desert Road. Arrived with 35% SOC.

Had a pleasant breakfast at The Larder Cafe Saturday morning while waiting to charge at the local Z, 30kWh taking 41 minutes and $21.

Arrived in Hamilton 207km later around noon with about 25% left. Topped up later that evening at Z Arthur Porter Drive (behind the Base) - 44kWh taking 38 minutes and $30.



To be continued…

A few extra notes on the trip up. Payload was Mrs Kiwi and I, plus our luggage for four days and 45kg of vintage Hewlett-Packard spectrum analyzer. All neatly swallowed up in the generous MG4 boot space. Plenty of space along with the granny charger, AC charging cable, and V2L cable.

At the start of the trip north we did our usual of hooking up an iPhone to the Apple CarPlay so that with the help of Google Maps we can better estimate our arrival time, distance to run, and get congestion warnings on the brilliant if sometime a little balky 10” MG4 dash.

Google decided on Friday to route us on the old SH1 bypassing the new SH1 Expressway. I had to be persuaded by my wife to follow the Alphabet company advice. It was as well that I did, the expressway had just closed with a crash at Otaki that would have had us stuck for an hour right at the start of our journey.

With that behind us, we were good until Bulls when the weather started to really pack it in. Later we had to negotiate trees across the highway, wind blown sand and gravel on the Desert Road, with incredibly gusty winds and rain that had the articulated B-train trucks pulling off the road for safety.

It was the sort of weather that I would normally prefer to tackle in the 4WD Freelander II.

Well the nimble MG4 managed all this with a bit of driver input and care. LKA nudges? Just a little tickle compared to the wind gusts pushing us all over the road.

A bit more tomorrow…

kiwi said:

and 45kg of vintage Hewlett-Packard spectrum analyzer.

Click to expand...

Not to derail your trip topic too much, but what's that for? It sounds intriguing. Or maybe if for analysing intriguing sounds?

It’s an instrument used by radio engineers to develop radio equipment and to investigate radio interference. Plots signal frequencies against amplitude. Prices range from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand. Some of the older instruments from the eighties made by vendors like HP were of such quality that they are still in regular use today.

While the main purpose of the trip was to visit relatives, I delivered this surplus SA to a friend. An oldie but a (heavy) goody.

Next leg was the 138km from Hamilton to Silverdale Mall, north of Auckland City. This was the drop off point for the test equipment.

Started with 92% and arrived with 50%. This trip involved lots of running on the 110kph Hamilton to Auckland expressway.

Great weather, 24° C plus temps, a big change from just two days before. Lunch was at Burger Fuel, a well deserved 4.3 rating on Google Maps for this branch.

I broke the return trip by stopping at Z Bombay after 78km with 29% left, topping up with 34kWh, taking 29 minutes and $23, hitting the road with 82% in the tank.



The Z charger here was a two bay Redphase 200kW, and unlike the same type at Tūrangi Z it worked without a problem. No need for these “Unavailable” signs lying in the grass nearby:



Tomorrow is the 475km trip from Hamilton back to Waikanae.

The return trip was uneventful and we focused on taking careful note of efficiency. The route from Hamilton to Waikanae takes you over the Desert Road, through the central North Island. Summit is 1075m and it's reached after a climb from Tūrangi at 380m in only 32km. We topped up there to 90% paying $22 for 32kWh.

We arrived in Bulls two hours and 169km later with 48% SOC. Efficiency was a pleasing 15.6kWh per 100km at an average speed of 81kph.

Nice to enjoy the MG4 64 fast charge party trick, this time hitting 139kW peak rate.



Funky paint job on ChargeNet 300kW unit, that's us parked alongside a Ford Mustang Mach-E in a rather nice blue.

From Bulls to home in Waikanae was a quick run and we finished up with 69% left.

kiwi said:

The return trip was uneventful and we focused on taking careful note of efficiency. The route from Hamilton to Waikanae takes you over the Desert Road, through the central North Island. Summit is 1075m and it's reached after a climb from Tūrangi at 380m in only 32km. We topped up there to 90% paying $22 for 32kWh.

We arrived in Bulls two hours and 169km later with 48% SOC. Efficiency was a pleasing 15.6kWh per 100km at an average speed of 81kph.

Nice to enjoy the MG4 64 fast charge party trick, this time hitting 139kW peak rate.

View attachment 23731

Funky paint job on ChargeNet 300kW unit, that's us parked alongside a Ford Mustang Mach-E in a rather nice blue.

From Bulls to home in Waikanae was a quick run and we finished up with 69% left.

Click to expand...

Slight deviation, but you appear to have removed the original wheel trims. The story goes that they are supposed to decrease drag. I am rather dubious of this claim. What is your experience.

Indeed there are small saving from the streamlining. However, it's not much see my post here:


While the Car and Driver test were done with a Tesla, I would expect the results would be pretty comparable. The key point here was the savings made by using streamlined covers were much less than the saving from simply not driving as fast.

I like the look of the naked alloys on the latest MG4 Aust/NZ market Essence (Trophy) spec and I get admiring comments from other MG4 owners.

I've been trying to get wheel centres that I like, there are plenty to choose from on the likes of Amazon.