When Pierre Azzopardi got to know that Australia was looking for a caretaker for an island in the Great Barrier Reef, he agreed that this was the best job in the world.

The much-publicised and well-paid job is all about fun: feeding turtles, meeting holidaymakers, making use of all the facilities, including a seaplane, and writing about your experience to help market the islands.

Although thousands of people from all over the world have already applied, Mr Azzopardi, a 35-year-old sports and travel entrepreneur living in Swieqi, thinks he is the ideal candidate.

And many voters seem to agree because he has ranked in the top 20 of the most popular candidates for the past few weeks. Finalists for the job will be shortlisted through a complex combination of online voting and interviews with a panel of judges. The more votes a candidate gets the better his/her chance of being noticed by the judges.

So what's so special about Mr Azzopardi?

He looks like an overgrown teenager and, despite the fact that he is fully Maltese, he could easily pass off as your typical Aussie backpacker. In fact, he's already travelled to Central America, the Caribbean, West Africa and countless other places. But, surprisingly, he's never been to Australia.

He has two young daughters and a wife who he married on a beach in Barbados three years ago after they came up with the idea spontaneously.

The makeshift wedding was organised in a day and featured an old Welsh woman and a Rastafarian traveller as their witnesses, their then four-year-old daughter as a bridesmaid, and some local teenage boys to take photos and film the wedding.

So can his adventurous family join him if he gets the job?

"Yes, of course, I've got it all planned. As part of the job you get your own three-bedroom luxury villa on the beach. I've already sorted things out with the school of Noemi, my eight-year-old, to be able to take three months away and do her schoolwork online," he says proudly.

His wife first thought he was crazy but his excitement seems to have caught on and she was the one who filmed his video application. His daughters are also over the moon and are already telling all their friends about their upcoming adventure.

In his video, Mr Azzopardi raps about why he is the ideal candidate. He's definitely not the next Eminem but his creative streak seems to have set him apart from the hundreds of run-of-the-mill talking heads.

A dedicated sportsman, his hobbies include waterpolo, waterskiing, sailing, rugby, scuba diving, beach volley, trekking and camping and he intends to use all this to his advantage.

"I don't want to go there and waste time. I want to turn this into an opportunity to do what I do best: organising sporting events and injecting the island with fun and adventure."

So does he think he can win?

"If I see something and I like it, I go for it. I usually get what I want. But I don't want to believe I can get it because then I'll stop working for it," he says with a smile.

Besides the adventure, the €70,000 six-month salary and the chance to become famous, Mr Azzopardi is also seeing this as a patriotic mission.

"I want to put Malta on the map. If I get the job, the first thing I will do is organise an international beach rugby tournament. And I'll make sure the Maltese team gets to come for free."

After the six months he'll then return to Malta and use his experience to help market his country.

"It's always been my dream to present Malta to the world. Even if we're small and have limited opportunities, we're good people with really strong values. And if we believe in ourselves we can be just as good, if not better, than everyone else."

He also thinks his nationality will be one of his strengths.

"Being Maltese gives me an edge. I'm fluent in English and I'm used to the island lifestyle. Also, if the organisers want to show that this was truly a worldwide search it would make sense to choose someone who isn't from the usual countries like Australia, the UK or America."

And what if he doesn't get the job?

"Life will go on. I'm already really attached to it. But if I don't get it, it won't be the end of the world. I'll just add it to my list of great experiences."

To rate Mr Azzopardi's video and improve his chances of winning visit www.islandreefjob.com/applicants/watch/IIg3gE2r7Mk.

cperegin@timesofmalta.com