The idea of owning a home is a key part in the journey of life so in late 2023 we decided to celebrate and commiserate life's journeys generally with our first ever competition
Tell us your funniest or weirdest story travel story for the chance to win 3 million Velocity points
We got entries from all over Australia, but one stood out above the rest and in early January we were very happy to award Bronwyn and Megan the winners of what will be enough Velocity points to more than make up for their travel (mis)adventures.
But before we get to their travel story, a little about their home loan story. Living in inner city Sydney, Megan & Bronwyn (Bregs to their friends) had dreams of both having a place to escape and also helping them to build wealth so found a beautiful little house on a decent sized block of land a couple of hours south of the city. A place they could use, a place they could rent out and a place they could improve and add their artistic flair to.
Anita Callaghan, their UNO broker, helped them navigate using their equity and potential rent for the new property to make all the numbers work and provided service in and around their respective work schedules which involved shift work hours. Being able to fit around people’s lives and giving them the tools and service to progress without having to be bound by in-person meetings or ‘office hours’ is a key part of the value of a UNO broker but ultimately Anita’s skills and experience were the key to their success process and outcome when it came to their home loan.
The story that lead them to UNO, getting their home loan via Anita Callaghan and ultimately winning the 3 million points is actually best left to Bregs, so without further ado, their winning entry
My partner and I shared a dream to rebuild a 1957 Volkswagon Kombi to travel Australia. We lived off baked beans, brown rice and tuna so we had enough money to get our chariot properly decked out. With a new motor, gear box and custom accessories, we were finally off on our big and hard-earned adventure. Down the highway we cruised, us, the open road and classic 80s pop beats. Less than an hour had passed when the nasally yet melodious voice of Cindy Lauper was rudely interrupted by a CLUNK-CRUNCH-BANG. We had come to a permanent, expensive, premature and grinding halt. Luckily, family hooked us up with a vehicle and some camping gear so all was not lost…yet. Reassuring each other that it would be smooth sailing from here, we headed to the calm and picturesque, Kangaroo Valley. We had planned to arrive much earlier but instead of being greeted by a glowing sunset, we were stuck trying to pitch our tent in the dark with a torrential downpour and gale force winds. The salt in the wound was losing a precious and sentimental earring to the howling tempest. Our reunion of close friends and our moods were dampened as the bad weather persisted and all of us strained our vocal chords trying to make conversation over the rain as it blasted down on the small marquee we huddled under. Farewelling our friends with hoarse voices and burning throats, we found sunshine in Merimbula. With the good weather finally upon us we grabbed our chairs and rods and went to wet a line. With the sunshine on our faces and the lapping of the water calming our nerves we were convinced that the woes of earlier were certainly behind us. Unfortunately, a gust of wind burst our bubble of tranquillity taking us and our chairs by surprise. We watched on helplessly as our chairs tumbled through the air and saw our phones keys and wallets fly out of the cup holders and into the water. Our relaxing afternoon (and phones) ruined, we trudged back to camp determined to remain positive and decided tomorrow was a new, albeit possibly frightening day. The adventure continued as did our bad luck. We encountered leaking air mattresses, lost reservations and even a flat tyre. A violent home invasion at the hands of cheeky yet terrifying native animals was the icing on the cake. ‘We will look back on this one day and laugh,’ we said to each other, neither of us convinced. Rather than tempt fate and continue on to see what else could go wrong, we decide to head home. We made it halfway before a large plume of smoke appeared ahead, taunting us, turning the clear blue sky to a toxic greenish grey. An incident on the road meant we were stuck for over two hours. Exasperated, frustrated and defeated I scrolled through my emails and saw the one about this competition as the road reopened. ‘Maybe our luck is about to change,’ said my partner. As I turned my head I felt a scratch to my neck. It was my lost earring stuck in my hoodie. "Maybe!" I chuckled.
We love that your travel story came full circle, led you to us and we can’t wait to see where you go with your millions of points. Life truly is an adventure.
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