LONDON, July 1 (RIA Novosti) - A former British charity fundraiser, who was selected for the "best job in the world," took up his duties on Wednesday on a tropical island in Australia's Great Barrier Reef where he will work as a caretaker.
"How exciting can it get, can't wait for some ocean," Ben Southall wrote in a Twitter posting.
Southall was chosen out of more than 34,000 applicants from around 200 countries in May.
He will be paid $150,000 for six months to live in the Blue Pearl villa on Hamilton Island overlooking the Coral Sea, with a swimming pool and a golf course.
His job will consist of publishing a weekly blog and video and photo diaries, as well as feeding fish and turtles and collecting mail.
Benefits of the "dream job" will also include free flights home with all food and accommodation included in the package.
Meanwhile, Southall said he would miss English home cooking, including roast dinners with his mother, as it will be "far too hot to cook anything like that."
The Best Job campaign was launched by Australian tourism authorities in January in an effort to attract tourists to the country amid the global financial crisis.
Yulia Yalovitsyna, from the northern Russian Republic of Karelia, was an early frontrunner for the cushy job.
She was scratched from the list of applicants following media reports that she worked in the porn business and had appeared in adult films.
