A timely question

Every day we get a slew of email from folks asking questions about travel, hostels, eurail passes, RTW tickets, etc. Most of these are pretty straightforward and easy to answer or sorted out with a bit of research.

Every now and again, however, we get a real headscratcher. Check this out…

I just have a question about an island that I was told about off the coast of Australia/New Zealand that I think may have been a rumor. I was told that the US has a military base on this island (I don’t know the name) and to get the area more populated they send US citizens there to work and they set you up with housing and so on. Basically you live there for free and work in the areas needed and get paid. They said you get a month vacation off the island and the government pays you to go wherever you want. It is supposedly US Territory. Have you ever heard anything about this? I have been researching it for weeks and I can’t seem to find anything about it.

As an Australian, I can honestly say I’ve never heard of such an island, but you can never trust those shifty Americans and their secret military bases.

If anyone else has heard of such a place, please let me know.

Or perhaps this person read this article and took it a bit too seriously:

Australia Gets Drunk, Wakes Up in North Atlantic
(I know I’ve posted this before but it cracks me up every time I read it)