A Toronto girl's 60-second rap has made her one of seven Canadians vying for the Best Job in the World, a quirky contest being put on by Tourism Queensland.
Christine Estima, a bubbly, charismatic 28 year old, says she's caught a serious case of the travel bug, backpacking through the Middle East, eastern and western Europe, South America and the Caribbean in the past four years.
Her love of travelling is why several of her friends emailed her with a link to the contest when they found out about it.
"I got several emails from my mates who said they thought of me when they heard about it, so I said to myself, 'why not?'" she said in an interview with ctvtoronto.ca.
She was one of more than 30,000 people who applied for a chance to win a six-month stint in Australia.
The finalist will be paid about $123,000 CAD to be a caretaker in the island. Duties include snorkeling, hiking, exploring and then promoting the island through online blogs, video diaries and media interviews. The winner gets to live in an oceanfront villa during their stay on the island.
The tourism board narrowed the applications down to 50 contestants, posting their video entry applications to their website. The 60-second video with the most public votes will be one of 11 finalists that will be flown down to Australia for a final interview.
Canada is the country with the most applicants in the top 50.
Estima found out she was a finalist on her 28th birthday.
While several of the video entries looked highly professional complete with complicated graphics and special effects, Estima made her entry look as homemade as she could.
"I wanted to make a 60-second video that was just about myself, to see if I can hold someone's attention for that long just by myself, no video editing, no bells and whistles," she said. "If you can hold people's attention without technology then you might as well do it."
She said she practised for hours the night before and had it wrapped by the second take without doing a single edit.
Opportunities - especially ones that involve travel - seem to come easy to Estima.
She began exploring the world in 2005 after she won a first-class Euro-rail pass in a contest she says she doesn't even remember entering.
After moving to London, England "on a whim," she was chosen to participate in a reality show called "When women rule the world."
She was surfing the web one day when she came across the show's website. She clicked on a button that said "Calling all feminists" and the next thing she knew she beat out 1,000 other applicants to win a spot on the show.
"I applied for it, not even thinking," she said. "I was really facetious on the application form. It was a great social experiment, really tongue in cheek."
She's not expecting this contest to come easy though. Estima says she's got a plan B.
On Wednesday, Estima - who is half Portuguese and half Lebanese -- officially became a citizen of the European Union, picking up her Portuguese passport. Her plan is to move to Europe for a few years to work there. After that, she's still dreaming about living in Australia.
"I'm living a charmed life right now," she said. "I'm at a time and place in my life where I can take advantage of these opportunities.
"What can I say?" she added with a chuckle. "The world is my toy store."
