Robert Clarkson (26), a self-employed PC mechanic, started a campaign two years ago when he lived in the United Kingdom.
Pirate-obsessed since he was a young boy, he wanted to turn his house into a pirate ship.
When he proposed the idea to his girlfriend, she scoffed.
"She said it was a stupid idea.
I told her I bet there's loads of people who think it's an awesome idea and she said: `Rubbish'," he recalled.
So they made an outlandish deal.
She would agree to have their house turned into a pirate ship if he could get one million people to support the idea.
He set up the Facebook page "If 1m[illion] people join, girlfriend will let me turn our house into a pirate ship".
He told the social-networking community he always wanted to be a pirate and the only way to do this was to live aboard a pirate ship.
"If 1 million people joined this group it would help her understand that this isn't such a bad idea, and lots of people would do it as well, and it would help my dream come true," he wrote.
Several thousand people all over the world began joining the group every day.
He was dumbfounded when two years later, after moving to Queenstown, he reached the one million mark.
On November 1, he wrote: "Well that's incredible! The group has reached 1 million people me and my girlfriend never expected anything like this.
With my girlfriend's permission I will begin the process of clearing building consent and drawing up structural blueprints for the foundations and . . . hull," he wrote.
The group's page was immediately inundated with people asking if he'd started the project and demanding photos.
"Hitting one million people has come as a complete surprise and, I don't know what most of you imagine of me, but I'm just a regular guy, I don't have piles of money sitting around waiting to be spent on pirate ship conversions.
Does this mean I'm backing out? HELL NAAARR!" he wrote.
He told the Queenstown Times he was receiving about 10 emails every day from people asking if he had started building his ship.
His followers began posting comments about sending him a dollar if it would help him follow through with his promise.
Others accused him of trying to scam money.
He said he wanted to turn the idea into something useful as a way of raising money for charity.
"I'm hoping to turn this into a charity project which would, I think, make the whole thing worthwhile while still giving the 1.4 million people what they want.
I don't want to mislead anyone or rip anyone off.
It's quite a predicament," he said.
However, his project is hampered by his lack of funds and the fact that he is now living in a rental property in Fernhill.
He was trying to get permission from his landlord to have the house turned into a pirate ship.
"If 1.4 million people give me a dollar I could build a real pirate ship house and give the rest to charity.
If I get less than that I could turn my house temporarily into a pirate ship, have a massive pirate party and give the rest to charity," he said.
He put his relationship on the line for the cause.
"My girlfriend was kind of getting quite irritated by it, but when I suggested we could use it to raise money for charity she started warming up to the idea," he said.
He is looking for a charity that in particular deals directly with helping victims of child abuse, hopefully in the Otago region or South Island.
He wants to help children, while following through on his promise to 1.4 million people and making his dream come true.
"This group for a lot of people represents doing what you believe in and following your dreams even in the face of naysayers, like your girlfriend," he said.
