Interpreter wins wild card for 'world's best job'

A skydiving, mountain-climbing interpreter from Taiwan has scored herself a shot at what's been dubbed the "Best Job in the World" - getting paid to serve as the caretaker of a tropical Australian paradise island.

Officials with the tourism department of Australia's Queensland state yesterday announced that Clare Wang won a spot among 11 finalists vying for the job - a 150,000 Australian dollar ($105,000) contract to relax on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef for six months while writing a blog to promote the area.

Wang was selected by the public as the "wild card" winner from a pool of 50 short-listed entries the department had chosen earlier. She received 151,676 votes - almost three times as many as her nearest competitor - on the job ad's website, which featured the video applications of all 50 hopefuls. Nearly 35,000 people from across the world applied for the gig.