Sting for man with 'best job in the world'

Trouble struck paradise this week when a British man who has the "Best Job in the World" as the caretaker of a tropical Australian island was stung by a potentially lethal jellyfish.

Ben Southall - who won a contest to blog for six months about life on Australia's Hamilton Island to promote tourism - wrote on Tuesday that he was lucky to have survived his brush with the extremely venomous Irukandji jellyfish.

Southall was getting off a jetski in the ocean this week when he felt "a small, bee-like sting" on his arm.

When he later noticed a tingling in his hands and feet, island staff took Southall immediately to the doctor.

Progressive symptoms of fever, headache, lower back pain, chest tightness and high blood pressure led the doctor to diagnose that Southall had been stung by an Irukandji jellyfish.

He was given pain medication and slept off the venom's effects overnight.