[wind whistling]
[tense music]
- There it is.
- Yeah, buddy.
- Oh, there it is.
- See the crate?
- I can see it!
- After three grueling weeks--
- This race has been the hardest thing
I've ever done in my life.
- --seven battle-tested teams remain--
- It's not a race to survive.
It's just being able to survive the race.
- We're all out there to get to that final crate.
You start fighting in ways you didn't know you could fight.
- --on a vicious race 2 course.
- God damn it.
- Injuries from Utah hunter, Ryan--
- Damn knee!
- Oh, shit!
- --ultrarunner Coree--
- You all right?
- My head has taking a couple pretty big hits so far.
- Oh, gosh!
No!
- --and endurance athlete, Ashley--
- My ankle is not healing as quickly as I'd like it.
- --changed the game for their teams.
- I'm doing this with my newly divorced ex-wife.
- While Mountaineers Paulina and Creighton--
- Try and not get frustrated.
I think this is--
- Creighton, we have to go up this way.
- I understand.
- --and oil workers Kennedy and Nik--
- Want me to leave right now? - Do it.
I dare you.
- --struggle to work together as a team.
- Ooh!
- Jesus.
- River guides Oliver and Corry took home first place
for the second straight race--
- We did it.
- The Jackson boys are pushing so hard.
They're whooping us.
- --as their rivals, smokejumpers Ethan and Tyrie,
failed to run them down.
- No matter what, we don't quit.
- Now, with no rest for the weary--
- Let's go.
What do we got?
- --the next test is about to begin.
This is "Race to Survive: New Zealand."
[tense music]
[birds chirping]
- Yes. Yes.
- Let's go.
What do we got? What do we got?
- Oh, here we go.
"Take a deep breath, you have made it
to race 3 of "Race to Survive."
- "And you are now closer than ever to $500,000."
- "Now, it's time for Race Leg 3, Cave to Coast."
- Race 3, 22 strenuous miles of pain and confusion.
Beginning with a sprint through the forest
to an ancient cave.
Dropping 600 feet underground, they'll
climb and squeeze their way through, out,
and then into the Green Maze--
their toughest navigational test yet,
a brain-jumbling 11-mile labyrinth
of crisscrossing game trails.
Solving the maze earns a run at the Boulder Canyon,
scrambling along rocks through the water
and to the ocean, where they'll paddle kayaks
along the coast
an exhausting 7 miles to the finish crate.
- "Descending through the cave is on a 'first come,
first serve' basis."
- If you don't have at least some nav background,
this course is gonna be challenging.
- So the food cache should be somewhere in there up
on the hill.
- Don't point.
- Sorry.
- "An important note, if a team taps out before the finish,
it does not necessarily save you from elimination."
- I'm just gonna take it one step at a time.
- Yeah, gotta dig down deep.
With the state of Ashley's ankle,
I know how hard she's fighting.
I know inch by inch, she's doing everything she
can to keep us in the game.
But it doesn't matter how tough she is if her ankle
is not obeying her brain.
I'm worried.
- With a 12-hour race clock, the course
needs a minimum of 2 days for the fastest teams to complete.
all: 5, 4, 3--
- And it all starts-- all: 2, 1!
- --now.
all: Let's go!
[dramatic music]
- Whoo-whoo!
Go, go, go, go!
I can't help you.
Say it out loud.
- Come on, Paulina!
- I know.
- Just going straight to the cave.
- Ash, you're right there?
- Yep.
- OK.
- The opening 2 miles pose an immediate
race-defining decision.
The course contains just one food cache.
So teams can head straight for the cave
and be first allowed to descend
or navigate to the food
and be forced to double back to the entrance.
- Skipping the cache.
We're heading to the start of the cave.
I'm not sure whose team-- what team you're with.
We're just trying to keep moving.
We're making the decision to pass the cache,
try to get the cave first so we have that advantage.
First one there gets first rights to go at it.
- Well, let's just keep going, bud.
- Yep.
- Where are you at, Nik?
- Just right here.
Keep going.
This way.
- Right off the bat, we decide we're going for the food cache.
It was a first hard nine days of starvation
that we did to ourselves.
That really motivated us towards food.
- Paul?
- Over here.
- Can you keep moving?
- I'm trying.
Are you feeling confident about where we're going?
- 100%.
- Good.
- Do you have you-- are you trying to-- are you navigating?
Do you have a compass out?
- Not right now.
- Why not?
- I'm trusting you.
I'm just trying to keep up with you right now.
- While Ryan and Bronsen make a beeline for the cave,
out of the gate, six of the seven teams
are opting for the food cache.
- There it is, huh?
That is it.
No, maybe not.
- Looking for an uphill.
- Of course, finding it is a different story.
- Hopefully, we're coming up on the cache.
It feels like it's a lot farther
than we should have gone.
Hey, let's look at the map real quick.
* *
- We're not necessarily the best at map and compass.
And if we're fighting a fire, we have a lot
of GPS satellite systems.
You know, we're lay-- getting a lay of the land
as we're flying around before we jump it.
It's just a lot different.
- So that should be 120.
- So we need to just do--
- 200 meters.
- With the smokejumpers overrunning
the cache by nearly a mile--
- Actually, the left edge of this.
Yeah.
We just got to find it.
Where is it?
- --their rivals, race 1 and 2 winners Oliver and Corry--
- To the flag, right?
- I believe so.
- --are first to track it down.
- ---- yeah.
First to the cache.
- Well done.
- Good naving.
- Coree-- - Hurry.
This is us.
- We can get that so we can get a bearings to the cave.
- Good naving, guys.
- You too.
- Second to the cache.
Got it.
Now, we're heading down to the cave.
- Yeah, Paul.
- Got it?
- Yeah.
Hey, boys. - Hey, brother.
- Good to see all y'all.
- Oh, yeah.
- Oh, that was so great.
- Cool.
- We need to go nice and straight down that way, Corry.
- You got the cache? - Yep.
- Oh, here we are. [cheers]
- Got it!
- Oh, I could cry!
I want food!
- You want to get it while I look at the nav?
- Yeah.
- Paulina, get us to our next spot, OK?
- I am.
- Got it? - Yeah.
- Here.
- This is madness.
I've never seen this many people at a food cache before.
- We head down that way. - OK, let's go.
- OK.
- Coree, we need to go that way.
Go!
- [grunts]
[tense music]
* *
- You all right?
- [groans]
- You good?
- We need to go.
- That's called the leaning tower.
- Yeah, leaning tower.
Coree, we need to go that way.
- OK, man, hold on.
It's gonna be some crazy bushwhacking.
- You all right?
- It'll be OK.
- All right, just let me know how it gets.
- Let's go.
- While the shell-shocked ultrarunners
and five other teams snatch and grab their food cache,
2 miles away--
- Maybe.
Yeah, there it is.
- OK, come touch.
- --for the second time in the competition,
turning down calories allows the in-laws
to climb the leaderboard.
- "Congratulations, you arrived at the cave.
"Your departure order is your order of arrival to this spot.
Prepare for a deep dive."
- 600 feet below the surface is an oozing, slippery system
of caverns.
The kinds of tight squeezes in the dark
that nightmares are made of, as they boldly
navigate a mile of claustrophobic crevices
and pitch-black switchbacks.
[tense music]
- Is something over here?
- Remember to touch it.
- Yep, yep, yep.
- [chuckles]
- ---- yeah.
[cheers]
- Let's go, dog.
- Snag the cache first and got to the cave, I believe, first.
I see Ryan and Bronsen right there.
- Oh. - Did they get here first?
- Oh, maybe they beat us. - They might of beat us.
- They skipped the cache. - Oh!
They might have beat us here, actually.
- Yeah.
- Ryan and Bronsen skipped the cache.
And that was about two days' worth of food.
It wasn't worth it.
- We know we're faster than them.
We'll catch them and pass them.
- With Oliver and Corry waiting their turn in second--
- We're doing good, Paul.
- I'm good!
- --it's a three-team race for third.
- You good, bro? - Yeah.
- Come on, Ash!
Come on, Ash! - Yes, yes!
Yes!
- Come on, come on, come on!
- ----.
- [laughs]
- God, that was so close. - Oh, yeah.
- That was seconds. - Way to work.
- Oh, god. - We were close.
- Nice. - So close, guys.
- Seconds. - OK.
- Coming up on these adventure challenges,
it's so important to get there first.
They really can make or break team placement out here.
You were slow in the forest.
- I mean, I was trying to go as fast as I could.
- I have seen you move faster.
[tense music]
- I was literally doing everything I could.
I wanted-- I want to be just as fast.
I was trying to keep up with you.
Don't-- don't talk down to me like that.
That's not cool. - I know.
That's why I--
- I have not talked down on you once this entire race.
And you're, like, talking shit on my--
on my abilities and, like-- and my speed.
That's not cool.
- It's not.
- Are you ready for this, bro?
- Yep.
- Pretty high.
We're the first team into the cave.
Getting hurt, obviously, put us out-- right out of the gate.
But we're backcountry guys.
We've always been backcountry guys.
People hire us to take them up in the mountains.
So I'm not, like, worried about height.
You get some of those areas that someone might freak out.
- I sure hope this thing is good.
Whoo!
Have fun, brah!
Look at that hole, dude.
- Come on, bro!
* *
- Keep her coming, Brons.
* *
Good job, bro!
* *
- Whoa.
- Coming up-- - Hurry, hurry.
Let's go.
Go, go, go, go!
- All ready torn up.
Bleeding everywhere.
- I don't understand what's going on.
- This is the last thing you and I ever do together.
[helicopter blades whirring]
- The Green Maze is taking casualties.
[tense music]
- Nice job, Brons.
- Yeah.
- Almost there.
- Deep old hole.
How sweet is that?
- One hour into the race clock, the 600-foot
plunge into New Zealand's limestone crust has begun.
- Let's do it.
- Just gonna push as hard as we can
so we can stay up in that top.
[water rushing]
Go swimming in that pool, huh?
- Yeah.
- Everyone else went for the caches.
But we didn't.
We chose not to so we can stay out in the lead.
It's a big risk not having that food.
So we got to make this worth it.
I don't know, where do you go, Brons?
Oh, I see it.
- You just hang on to it.
- Clear of the rappel, teams will feel their way
forward a mile and a half--
- See that handhold?
You gotta grab it.
- --climbing, squirming, and fighting
every inch in darkness as fast as they can.
- 'Cause if you were to fall into that--
- That would suck.
- --that's gonna be cold.
- Back at the entrance--
- Nice pit.
- It's here.
We're here.
Let's do it.
- --the next team is allowed to descend.
- Man, I don't even have words.
Like, I think I can see the bottom.
- What's the worst thing that could happen?
- The worst thing that we-- could happen--
- Look at that pit.
- --is we die alone at the bottom of the pit.
[laughter]
- Whoa!
That's scary.
- Those 3 seconds behind the moms
cost us a ton of time going into the cave.
That could be the difference between us staying
in this competition or not.
That's why I'm-- That's why I'm upset.
I feel like you didn't do 100%.
I feel like--
- Sorry it wasn't up to your standards.
But that was-- that was all I had.
- No, it wasn't like up to my standards.
I feel like it wouldn't be up to your standards.
- I feel like you've been really mean
to me, like, all day today.
And I don't understand what's going on.
[tense music]
- When you divorce somebody, you give up
on trying to fix the things that were broken.
- I initiated the separation.
I was hopeful that we could work through it.
He was the one who asked for the divorce.
It just kind of came to the point
where we both realized that we would have to change who we
are as people to make it work.
- But I'm having a hard time today being here with you.
There are just ways that we don't work together.
- Yeah.
- But out here, like, we can't escape it.
- Yeah.
- Do you think we're ever gonna do anything
after this, you and I?
- I have no idea, but I think that's a conversation
for another day.
- I think there's like a real chance this is the last thing
you and I ever do together.
But if is-- if this is our final thing, it's pretty cool.
- Pretty ------- cool.
[tense music]
- While five of the seven teams have entered
the cave or wait to descend--
- Oh, my god.
300 degrees.
- So that way?
- --two teams are still in the forest.
The smokejumpers struggling to find the cache
and ultrarunners Coree and Jeff--
- Located the-- - At the water.
- Yep.
And there's water right there.
- It's gotta be there.
- --slowed by a fall and struggling to find the cave.
- My head hurts.
Life goes on.
It would be awesome to see Jeff win this
just because, you know, his girls,
the college would be paid for.
And so I want to help him win this thing.
- You see it?
- To the right. Yep.
When you're racing with a teammate,
it's like, wow, like, they had to take time off work,
time away from their families, time away
from their daily activities.
And they've been training for this for the last six months
or however long it's been, you know?
It's not just me.
There's just a lot that goes into play then.
- How are you feeling?
- Pretty bad.
- Anything I can do?
- Mm-mm.
- 1,200 yards away and 600 feet below--
- We're just gonna keep pushing through at a good pace.
Whoo-hoo-hoo!
[chuckling]
- [laughs]
- Whoo!
Let's go, bro!
My pride and reputation is on the line.
I got to prove my point that we're the best.
I've envisioned myself and Bronsen so many times
coming to that finish line.
And then we open that up and see that one medallion
knowing we won $500,000.
I mean, it's a-- it would just blow my heart away.
I'm hoping that there's an end out of here,
you know what I mean?
- In order to escape the cavern--
- Go through there?
- I don't know.
- Yeah?
Looks tight.
- --all racers must squeeze and force
themselves face down through a watery
fissure barely 2 feet high.
- Going down into the hole.
And caught again.
And I can't move it.
It's cold.
God damn.
- You all right?
- Damn it.
Augh.
Shit.
- You all right?
- God damn it.
Shit.
[grunts]
[groans]
- Dude, it's like you're getting reborn, buddy.
- Whoo!
Let's go, bro!
- Hot?
- Yeah.
- OK.
- Hurry, hurry.
Let's go.
Go, go, go, go.
- We got to boogie.
- They're coming.
- Dude, we made it out, Brons.
- Hey, and it's sunny!
[chuckles]
- Whew.
- It feels good out here.
- Clearing the cave, in-laws Ryan and Bronsen
have a hold on first place.
But back at the food cache--
- Phew.
We have the cache.
We just got to reset, you know, and get to the cave.
- --after veering wildly off course--
- There's a bunch of sign of people running through here.
That's exactly what we're pointing to.
- --for the first time in the competition,
smokejumpers Ethan and Tyrie are over
90 minutes behind and facing the serious
threat of elimination.
- Let's go.
- Is this the cave start?
Touch it.
- Yeah.
- You know, we've been in a lot of stressful situations
together already.
- We know how well we work together.
- So you just have a lot of trust and faith in each other
that if stuff does blow up, we're gonna be able to make
the right decision together.
And so we're just gonna keep on fighting.
- With 10 hours remaining on the race clock--
- All right.
Here we go.
- Oh, she's tight.
Whoo-ee!
- --teams are pushing through the underground world.
- Yeah, you got it.
- Ahh!
- That is some cold water, man.
This is protecting me ankle!
Every step of that cave hurts.
We're not just, like, crawling through things
or walking through the dark.
We are rappelling inside the cave.
We are climbing up rocks.
Good job!
- I'm here to spot you.
Grab up. Grab up.
Good.
- This is more technical than I thought it was gonna be.
I think I might just have to scooch my way down.
- Hey. - Ah!
[metal scraping]
[water splashing]
- You OK?
- Yeah, I'm good.
Divorce isn't easy.
And there's, like, still a decent amount of issues
that we each have had to deal with.
But out here, you have to get over
any disagreement you're having quickly if you
want to stay in the race.
- All right, well, that's one-- that's a quick way to do it.
- [laughs]
- Where are we going?
- I don't know.
- Do you have your compass?
- No, you don't use a compass in a cave.
- All right.
- [groans]
[spits]
- That works, too.
- Oh, man.
[groans]
- You all right?
- My head's just pounding.
- Coree's strengths are his ability to keep our morale up.
When he was my coach, even after what
I conceived as a bad race, for him to just fire right back
and tell me all the things that I did good.
- [groans]
- Anything I can do?
So it's just hard to watch him in pain right now.
But he's tough.
He's tough.
And he'll push.
- I'm all right.
Let's get off of this thing.
[groans]
- Off rope.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Holy shit, man.
- Nice.
- This is wild, dude.
- 1 mile ahead--
- All right, Brons, let's hit that trail.
Straight ahead, man. - OK.
- --leaders Ryan and Bronsen have
plunged headlong into the race's next challenge.
- This is nasty stuff, bro.
- Already is torn up.
I'm bleeding everywhere.
- With a canopy so thick, it turns daylight to dusk,
the Green Maze is a navigational nightmare.
Bordered to the north by cliffs so steep,
a geofence boundary has been marked for safety,
this 11-mile labyrinth of deadfall
and thorn-kissed vines
is riddled with a gnarl of footpaths created by animals
and the hunters in their wake, each headed
in a different direction.
- Everything's just brutal out here.
My hands are just eaten apart.
Everything you grab was sticking onto you,
sticking onto your packs, cutting your hands up.
It was constant.
------- heck, bro.
- While the in-laws bash straight through
the thickets--
- If you can keep your head up for the flag?
- --chasing them down, Oliver and Corry
have a different tact.
- We're gonna hit a geofence off the back of this.
We can bounce the fence.
- OK.
- Using the boundary markers designed
for safety to navigate, instead of a map or compass.
- So those geofences are there to protect us
from, like, steep, steep terrain,
cliffs, that sort of thing.
And so we figured the best way to do it
for this initial starting point was
to actually hit that geofence and basically hug it,
stay right on it, because eventually that line is
gonna point us right to the-- that track
that we need to be on.
- I see tape up there.
- There it is.
- Geofence.
More tape.
- Using the bordered fence as a handrail is a clever play
but comes at a cost, adding over 2 miles of extra travel.
- I'm pretty confident we're probably
just behind Ryan and Bronsen.
[tense music]
- With seven hours left on the race 3, day 1 clock--
- * Sunlight *
- Let's go.
- --all teams have cleared the cave and hit the dense
bushwhack in the Green Maze.
- I imagine we're somewhere right here.
- Cool.
- Good calls, man.
Real good calls.
- Keep following this down until we hit a creek or river.
Then we'll know where we're at.
- Looking to overcome the navigation error
that dropped them to last--
- I think this is a creek.
- Yep.
A fresh creek.
- --the smokejumpers are following
a straight bearing, sprinting at every
chance to make up ground.
- We're ahead of you.
- Oh, hey, guys.
- Good job, Kennedy.
- Yeah, man, we're just gonna be going up and over that hill.
- Yep.
Just keep following it.
Trust your gut.
I trust you.
- I think it's this way.
- It's saying this way.
Based on my bearings, we got to go that way.
But if that trail goes that way, then we're good.
- It's not trails.
We're following, like, animal game paths and, like,
trapper trails, and stuff that, like, the general people
don't really take.
- OK, it just makes me so nervous.
- What makes you nervous?
- That we're going the wrong direction
and then we're gonna get behind.
- Let's see if there's like-- if we missed,
like, a little left.
- OK.
God damn it, I ------- hate this.
- Scattered throughout the blindingly dense forest
with no way of knowing their positioning--
each team is carving its own unique pathway.
- In the Green Maze we go.
They were not joking around.
- OK with this Ash?
- Yep.
- None more cautious than the route chosen
by navigator Rhandi, looking to protect her teammate's
hobbled ankle.
- This is gonna be slow-going, and there's
nothing wrong with that.
We just take our time here.
- It feels like there might be a bit of a game trail here.
- Just look out for bush lawyer.
I'm very comfortable in the outdoors.
My mom taught me how to be wild in nature
and in the mountains and doing hard things.
My sister and I, we didn't have a lot
when we were little, and my mom worked so hard
to give us a wonderful life.
But because of her wild and fun mountain ways,
she blew out both her knees and progressively had to get
one surgery after another.
And pain medication was needed.
That was how it all started.
And almost nine years ago, she passed away from
an accidental drug overdose.
[somber music]
And, you know, I want to preserve her memory
and her amazingness because I would never
want her to be known as that person,
because it did not define her.
I think we might be on this.
- At some point, we're just gonna have to go
on a bushwhacking adventure.
- That dream really freaking big, that comes from my mom.
And that's the base and the, kind of, the foundation
of who I am as a human and how I mother
and how I approach life.
The glass is full for me.
Hey, we got a trail.
We got footprints. - This is great.
- We're in business, baby.
- Beautiful.
OK, onward.
Here we go.
- In a rare clearing of the Green Maze--
[tense music]
* *
- Oh, boy.
Even the wind is bothering my head.
- --constant, pulsating pain has
slowed the ultrarunners to a walk,
dropping them to dead last.
- Whatever we need to do.
You just let me know.
I don't know--
I don't know what to say, you know?
I couldn't imagine having a headache for as long
as he's had one.
So I think he's pretty tough--
[chuckles] --for pushing as hard as he has.
- It's actually getting worse as the day goes on.
Something's just not right.
My head is not getting better.
- Ten hours into the daily race clock.
- Geofence river comes in over there.
- Their navigation move paying off, Oliver and Corry
have ridden the northern boundary
all the way to first place.
- The box is right there.
[tense music]
* *
- "Challenge 2, The Canyon.
"And The Canyon is designed to test your route-finding skills
"on a foot race in a river.
"The Canyon is a dark zone.
"You will not be allowed to start this
"challenge if you have less than three
hours on your race clock."
- Close.
- An hour late.
- That sucks so hard.
- It feels like a lot of race clock's burnt.
- Let's go make camp, dude.
- Yeah.
- For safety of the racers, no team is permitted to enter
the jagged, boulder-laden canyon without enough time
to complete it before sundown.
- Ugh, so disappointed.
To come out of the Green Maze and be stopped
by that dark zone in the canyon and potentially blow our lead,
there's some frustration for sure.
I hope we don't see anyone else today.
- While the dark zone has forced
the river guides to a halt--
- I know I'm hydrated.
I know I have calories in me.
I know it's not either of those things making my head hurt.
And so it's like I'm just very concerned about continuing
to make it worse.
- The fall at Cache 1 has done the same to Coree and Jeff.
- Like, it really sucks.
I don't want to just quit because we're here.
We put in a lot of work to get to this point.
But, like, I cannot keep pushing like this.
- Hey, I'm not upset.
You know what I mean?
It's a hard decision to make.
So, yeah, I'm behind you 100%.
- From day one, we've said that, you know,
we wanted to come here and compete,
have this great adventure, but we are going
to make it home in one piece.
- Just a beautiful country.
Here it comes.
[helicopter blades whirring]
It's hard.
I didn't want it to end.
And I didn't want it to end this way for Coree,
for me, for anybody.
As much as I want to go and hug my kids,
you know, laying in bed, I would trade the comforts
to be back under the tarp.
- After 70 grueling miles and notching
two strong fifth-place finishes,
the decorated ultramarathoners
have hit the end of the road.
- That looks like a medical helicopter.
- No.
Oh, man.
- Oh, my gosh.
- Jesus.
Well, I guess the Green Maze is taking casualties.
- It doesn't mean that we're safe.
- No, dude, even if a team gets taken out by injury,
then we could still come in last and be out.
- Yep.
[tense music]
- For the remaining six teams, it's crunch time.
- [whistles]
All right, Brons, touch the metal thing.
- We made it.
- Holy cow.
- Hey, look who it is.
- It looks like we'll be starting tomorrow.
- Heck, yeah, man.
- After skipping the food cache, hoping to get ahead--
hunters Ryan and Bronsen slow bushwhack through the maze
ends their day in second place at the canyon.
- I am so frustrated.
- Me, too.
We know that that's not it. - Yeah.
- All right.
- The rest of the teams--
- Grab this tree.
I know, the ankle doesn't obey.
- --are mired in the jungle labyrinth, scrambling to stay
on course and out of last.
- The trail started veering off.
We decided, as a team, not to trust
them and just head through the Bush direct bearing.
- But in the day's biggest turnaround--
- You think we're close?
- --with seconds to spare, smokejumpers Ethan
and Tyrie's true navigation and hustle whiplashes
them from last to third.
- Oh, yeah, dude!
[cheers]
[chuckles]
There it is, dude.
- Challenge 2, The Canyon.
- Nice push, dude. - Yeah.
- ---- yeah.
- Oh, did we make it?
[horn blares]
- Despite gaming the system and arriving two hours early,
Oliver and Corry will begin tomorrow neck-and-neck
with their closest rivals.
- What's up, dudes?
- Good to see you guys.
- Congrats, boys.
Good work.
A little disappointing.
- I think Ethan and Tyrie showing up definitely
puts our first place in jeopardy.
We're gonna have to work a little bit
harder than I thought-- than I think we thought we would.
- As the top teams make camp--
- I'm so over today.
Days like this make you think, a hot shower
would be way better than this.
- --the back of the pack remains in the maze.
- I really don't want to go home yet.
- There's no way we're going home this race.
It's not happening.
- I feel so bad.
[sobbing]
And I just don't want to ruin her.
- I know. - I know.
It's, like, not responding at all.
I can see it.
My toes are not lifting.
They won't, like, curl or, like, point or flex.
Am I dealing with a pain that's gonna cause me
longer recovery and longer out of my racing,
longer out of work?
Like, this is getting worse and worse, not better.
This is-- this is so hard, because it's like,
don't be stupid, sleep on it.
And then I'm like, don't be stupid, go home.
- So now we just have to make a decision about what's
best in the big picture.
You are a gift.
We-- like this, sharing this with you is a gift.
Being here is.
So everything is a win, even if it's not like exactly
where we thought we'd be.
OK? - OK.
[somber music]
* *
- Just get to those kayaks.
I'll be OK.
I've just got to get to those kayaks.
[tense music]
[birds chirping]
- Just woke up and my brain was like, you know what?
Today is gonna suck.
- As the second race day begins--
- I was able to rest a little bit.
And hopefully, we'll have some more function in the ankle
this morning.
- Just step by step. - Yep.
- And we'll get through it.
We've got a game plan.
We're a team.
And we're just gonna take it one chunk at a time.
- --the rally to avoid elimination
is on for the bottom three.
- Four minutes.
All right.
- Even just to get fifth, we want to stay in the game.
- I'm ready to get after it.
- While for the top teams, poised
to be released in five-minute intervals
by order of arrival--
- Love it.
- Whoo-hoo.
- --a showdown is coming.
- It was unfortunate to see that lead dissipate
because of the dark zone.
But looking at our two most competitive teams,
we just burned you guys.
And we burned you good on that one.
- There was a lot of anger, frustration energy.
That is pretty huge motivation.
- Ready?
- All right, let's get this bread.
Mmm, bread.
- Oh, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Let's go. [horn blaring]
- Widdle-waddle!
Widdle-waddle!
- Let's go.
- Let's do it.
- Ready?
- Let's boogie.
- The Canyon--
2 miles of river-cut granite winding to the beach.
The direction is clear.
The path, anything but.
Teams must leap, swim, slide, and squeeze
through boulder gardens, down cliff faces,
and past waterfalls to the shore.
It's tricky, even if taken at a careful pace.
[dramatic music]
- Hang left.
- And downright dangerous
if someone's out to prove a point.
* *
[water splashing]
- Whoa, yeah.
* *
- Us, Ethan and Tyrie, Ryan and Bronsen, we're all hungry.
You know, we all want it.
And we're all ready to, kind of,
thrash our bodies through this canyon to get ahead.
* *
- It definitely feels like home terrain.
We're moving super-fast.
- Jump.
* *
- Oh.
Yeah, that hurt.
- Shit.
That is slippery.
* *
- Ahh, let's do it.
* *
- Hold!
* *
- We've just got to keep moving.
- 1 mile behind--
* *
- Found it.
- Yay!
- Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
Tag.
- Do you see how many dry bags are still here?
- Oh, my god.
- There are three sets besides ours.
- Holy shit. - We're in fourth.
- Oh, my god.
Neither one of us are ready to leave.
And we're going into a canyon.
And Creighton and I fly through canyons.
Like, that was our main thing that we did together
as a couple was canyoneering.
- This is basically a second honeymoon.
This is the coolest thing we could possibly do.
Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
- Close, baby. We're close.
Yoo-hoo!
Hell, yeah.
Oh, they're back there.
Good to go.
- There's the ocean.
- Come on.
[water sloshing]
[groans]
- As the top teams clear the canyon, facing elimination,
the back two push to be the next allowed to enter.
- We can hear water, which means we're probably
super close to the canyon.
- First to the challenge canister earns the advantage
of a five-minute head start.
- Yes.
- Beautiful.
This is probably our best place to cross.
- Ooh-we!
OK. OK.
Ow.
The good news is the rocks are not slippery.
No, I don't want to do that.
We'll go this way.
- There's people right there.
- Yeah, I know. Let's go.
- Right there?
- There is better.
OK, ready?
1, 2, 3.
- It's anyone's game right now.
The Jackson boys just took off.
They're in the water.
- Let's go, Brons!
- Go, go, go, go, go.
- All right, get in.
Whoo!
All right, rip it.
- Let's go!
Let's go!
I'm gonna-- I'm going this way.
- Oh, I see it!
- We've got a team right behind us.
Who is that, Nik and Kennedy?
- Mm-hmm.
- Nik, I see it!
Go straight!
- I am going straight.
Let's go.
- We want to try to get that lane before them,
and we're almost through the rocks.
- Let's keep it up.
- You see them?
- Let's go.
Go.
- Good push, man.
- Good job, Ash!
Come on, they're coming!
- Let's go, Kennedy!
We got them!
- I know, we both have to tap it.
- Come on, Ash!
Come on!
- I'm trying!
- You've got it!
- Let's go, Kennedy!
Go Kennedy!
- [screams] - Come on!
- Next time on "Race to Survive: New Zealand"--
- I can see the Jackson boys.
I think I see the end, dude.
- Is that the crate right there?
- Finish crate.
[chuckles]
- [groans] - Let's go!
Let's go!
- I know, we're almost there.
But-- [sobs] --it's not working.
- Nothing's biting out here, man.
- No food here.
If anything would get me to tap, it's food.
- Yeah!
- Your boy caught a fish.
Kill that thing, dude.
- No, no, no, no!