Our Trip to the Grampians

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Hey everyone!! Hope you are all doing well!!
So last weekend we went up to a mountain range about 3 hours from Melbourne called the Grampians. We drove our sweet ass ride up there (our 1998 Hyundai Excel) to visit with one of Trents dads friends, named Mark. He lives on an acreage near a small town called Pomonal. We had a great ride up, seen some kangaroos, and lots of birds, and arrived at Marks friday evening. He lives with his girlfriend, Sue, and her daughter. Its a very laid back place, not much to do except sit on the deck and relax. It was great to get out of the city!

On Saturday we went in to a town about 10 minutes away from Marks place to visit Sue at her workplace, she owns a personal training facility. And then Trent and I drove over to a place called Halls Gap, which is a small mountain town. We had a few pit stops along the way, one being a winery (to get our glow on) and one being a wildlife reserve. The wildlife reserve was absolutely fantastic!! We got to hand feed deer, kangaroos, birds, walabees, emu's, and goats. We also got to see monkeys, koalas, pigs, and numerous other Australian native animals. Did you know koalas sleep 20 hours a day?? I WISH!!! Then we headed over to Halls Gap. We ate some lunch, checked out some shops, and had an ice cream. Then we drove up to this place called the Balconies, which looks over the whole of the Grampians mountain range. After that, we drove up to a place called Mackenzie Falls, took a 1km hike in (seen a brown snake, which apparently are really dangerous) and checked out the falls. We went back to Marks place that evening, where he took me on a crazy dune buggy sort of ride on his acreage.

Sunday, Trent and Mark went Blo-Karting (its a kart with a sail on it and when its windy, you get blown around a field in this kart.) Trent had a blast! We left Marks place shortly after, and went on a winery tour (6 of them to be exact.) We bought wine, port, and champagne (and some more wine-Laura, you would be proud) from each place we went to. We now have quite the collection, which is slowly dwindling. We arrived safely back in Melbourne, and continued putting together our home (Ikea furniture is quite the job.)

Now we are spending our time getting things done around the house, and applying for jobs. I have 2 job interviews on Monday, one for a recruiter's position at an IT company, and one for a Executive Assistant role. Trent took some courses in job safety, and next week he is taking First Aid Level I and II. He is looking for positions in construction management/foreman.

Last night we met with a girl and her fiancee for dinner that I was friends with when I lived in England. It was nice to catch up. We will post more in a few days, once we know about our job situation better, and more furniture arrives. We'll also post some pictures of the area we are living in.
Talk to you guys soon!!

Trent and Ash

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