Message in a bottle travels thousands of miles in two years

July 3 (UPI) -- A message in a bottle dropped into the South Pacific off the Polynesian island of Bora Bora traveled thousands of miles in two years to an Australian beach.

Charlton Craggs, a staff member at Elysian Retreat in North Queensland's Whitsunday Islands, said he was walking on a Long Island beach when he stumbled on a bottle containing a note authored by Edmonton, Alberta, resident Tom Love.

Love's note, dated Jan. 25, 2016, explained the bottle was dropped from a cruise ship and included $1 in U.S. currency to cover the finder's cost of contacting him.

"I was so excited and couldn't wait to contact the author to tell him I'd found his message - it was like something out of a movie," Craggs told the Townsville Bulletin.

Craggs was able to get a hold of Love using an email address he included in his note.

"I was amazed, astounded, when it happened," Love told Global News.

Craggs told Love he is planning to hang the dollar and the letter -- dubbed the "Love note" -- over the bar at the resort.

Love said he has set other bottled messages adrift in the past, but Craggs is the first person to contact him saying he found one.