22 November 2010
16.5°C partly cloudy, 283330kms and we are off for the night, somewhere close to home, to test the new battery set up. We bought a reconditioned battery off Trade Me ($153 delivered) and so now we have 235 Amp hour of power, instead of 115! We were tired of always running out of power, so this seemed like the quickest, cheapest and easiest way to solve that problem. So Mike removed the cradle the original battery sat in, and the 2 batteries fit in the box - just! Had cables made up to parallel them. Also learnt some interesting stuff about batteries from the very helpful Technical Department guys at Innovative Energy when Mike rang to make sure our charger could handle 2 batteries. Seems that, contrary to earlier advice from auto-electricians, you should not leave the power on to the batteries all the time - ie, you should not leave your campervan plugged into mains - you can overload the battery if it's fully charged and then you start the motor, as starting the motor sends a boost charge to the battery - causing it to overload and boil! What they now recommend is that you plug it in for 2 days and nights, and then unplug for 2 days and 2 nights. And before you go anywhere, it should be unplugged! That way the battery has a chance to "settle" before you load it up again. This increases the life span of your battery significantly, apparently. So that's what we'll do from now on.
Anyway, went up the Clyde Hill to have a look at the lake, because we had thought to just go over by the boat ramp - but every man and his dog are there, so off to Omakau - got there at 14:46 (forgot to write down what time we left!), at the same spot as last week (the first night, after Poolburn). Mike read and had a nana-nap while Marielle had a fish - no luck though, the river is pretty fast after the large amount of rain we had over the weekend. Went to the Commercial for a drink at 16:30 and got back just after 18:00. Turned on the gennie so we could watch the news - no rescue in sight tonight for the 29 miners trapped at the Pike River coal mine - we feel deeply for their families! Had tropical chicken (marinated in lemon juice, coriander and ginger, served with salad, mango and a dressing of mayo, coconut milk and ginger - yum!) and now 21:40 and getting ready for bed. 10°C out.
23 November 2010
Up at 07:40 and 5°C. Left at 08:52 to go home - whether we like it or not, we have a fence to paint! The new battery set-up seems to be working as it should - still had 75% battery level getting up this morning, and that was when they hadn't even been fully charged before we left, so all good. Home at 09:22, 283397kms.
