Australian man wins Pacific island resort in raffle
SYDNEY — A lucky Australian man has won his own remote Pacific island resort in a raffle, after shelling out just US$49 (S$67) for the winning ticket to claim the paradise property.
A screenshot of the video promoting the Micronesia island resort sweepstakes.
SYDNEY — A lucky Australian man has won his own remote Pacific island resort in a raffle, after shelling out just US$49 (S$67) for the winning ticket to claim the paradise property.
The man, identified as Joshua, won the 16-room Micronesian resort in a draw organised by the Australian owners, who were looking to handover the lodge to someone like-minded.
Ahead of the draw, co-owner Doug Beitz said he was hoping the winner would be “someone who likes warm weather, likes meeting new people from around the world, is adventurous”.
A video posted on Facebook revealed the winning number, drawn on Tuesday evening (July 26) by a computer, to be ticket 44,980.
The winning number. Photo via Facebook
But Mr Beitz’s efforts to reach the new owner by phone and inform him of his life-changing win were not immediately successful.
He eventually tracked the lucky winner down and gave him the good news.
“His name is Joshua and he’s from Australia,” Mr Beitz said, adding that he lived in New South Wales state.
The man’s full identity was not immediately revealed until news of winning the Kosrae Nautilus Resort on the Micronesian island of Kosrae, which lies west of Hawaii and north of the Solomon Islands, had sunk in.
Joshua will take ownership of a resort, which is debt-free, profitable and has more than 20 years left on its lease.
Mr Doug and Ms Sally Beitz, who built the resort in 1994, have lived in Micronesia for more than two decades but said they felt it was time to return to Australia.
They were going to sell the property in the traditional way until one of their sons came up with the idea of the raffle.
“We will do financially well out of it,” Mr Beitz said ahead of the draw, for which tens of thousands of tickets were sold around the world.
If nothing else, it afforded some people an opportunity to dream of life on a tropical paradise.
“Thanks for the awesome dream,” wrote one ticket-buyer on Facebook. Another said: “Congrats Joshua, have a good life there.” AFP
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