Break needed after 'best job'

Sydney: For anybody dreading the post-Christmas return to work this week, it might have seemed like the perfect career switch — "working" as resident caretaker of an idyllic holiday island off Australia's tropical northern coast. But for Ben Southall, who won the "Best Job in the World" contest last year to get his posting on picturesque Hamilton Island, the postcards home have not inspired quite as much jealousy as expected.

The 34-year-old former charity worker, from Petersfield, Hampshire, beat 34,000 other competitors for the job, which also came with a £2.5 million (Dh15 million) beachside mansion boasting magnificent ocean views. Other perks in the contest, dreamed up by Tourism Queensland as a publicity ruse after the global economic crisis, included a £74,000 salary, access to a private pool and a courtesy golf buggy.

Alas, Southall's posting has just come to an end — and perhaps none too soon. As he now admits, being a tourist ambassador for paradise has not been plain sailing. In fact, there has been very little time for sailing at all — or sunbathing, or relaxing and enjoying those fine ocean views. Instead, he found himself working seven days a week and up to 19 hours a day, slave to a gruelling schedule of promotional events, press conferences, official glad-handing and administration.

"It has been very busy, busier than most people would have imagined, and certainly busier than I had imagined," Southall told The Sunday Telegraph, adding that he had been "too busy" to sit back and reflect on it all very much.

A snapshot of just how demanding the Best Job in World could be is provided by Tourism Queensland's official report on Southall's posting, which ended at new year. It announced that as of then, he had visited 90 "exotic locations", had made 47 video diaries, and had given more than 250 media interviews — including a chat with Oprah Winfrey. He had also criss-crossed Queensland state meeting local politicians, giving speeches, and networking with innumerable visiting dignitaries, tourists and travel industry representatives.

True, somewhere along the line he did also learn to sail, play golf and kayak. But even those activities were curtailed by the need to keep a running "wish you were here" web commentary about what he was up to. He posted more than 75,000 words in 60 separate blogs — the equivalent of a small novel — uploaded more than 2,000 photos, and "tweeted more than 730 times", according to Peter Lawlor, head of Tourism Queensland.

Indeed, in the view of his online audience, he spent so much time blogging about having a good time that that he didn't really have much of a time at all.

Readers of the website www.islandreefjob.com complained that the jam-packed itineraries organised by Tourism Queensland left Southall no time to explore the reef and deliver detailed accounts of his experiences.

Either way, Southall admits that he is now tired and perhaps in need of a holiday. "It was a job that needed 18 to 19 hours work every day," he said. "Not just the interviews and the social side of it, but also sitting up late at night blogging and uploading pictures."