MAN: The South Island of New Zealand, it's an epic place.
It's wet...
..it's cold, it's snowy.
If you don't respect the environment here, it will slap you hard.
I just need to bring some food in.
Look at that stonker.
Last night there was deer all around me.
That's freaking delicious.
I know how tough it's gonna be.
Oh, my God, I miss them.
You've gotta feel safe, otherwise you'd just die out here.
It doesn't feel as bad as it looks. It feels worse.
This shit just got lit.
Jesus!
I'm scared enough to have my emergency tap-out in my hand.
The last person standing, they take home $250,000.
Somebody help me!
I am the captain of my ship.
This is Leanne. I'm officially tapping out.
Yeah, I'm officially tapping out.
Hey, this is Chase. I'm officially tapping out.
I don't wanna starve. I wanna catch a fish.
If I can't catch fish, I can't stay here.
It's some sort of a gastro bug and I just feel so weak.
My boot's coming apart.
They're disintegrating.
These things are sent to test us.
I've been vego for a lot of years now.
I do wonder what would happen if I included hunting
with the bow and arrow.
Probably not really ready for that yet.
Oh, wow. Just wow.
Every time I come out here
and I look at that, it is just stunningly beautiful.
I recommend it.
Anyone, if they ever get the chance,
come out here and check out this unknown location.
It's stunningly beautiful.
Woken up a little bit of a headache this morning.
I don't know if it's due to malnutrition or what.
I don't think it's dehydration.
The first thing I'm gonna do is gonna go throw a line out
into the water and see if we have any luck.
Big drink of water.
Catch some fish. Eat some fish.
Gonna manifest it.
Here, fishy, fishy!
Here, fishy, fishy.
Maybe they don't speak English.
(CALLS OUT IN POLISH)
When I first came to this world, it was definitely
into a Polish household.
(CALLS OUT IN POLISH)
With that came the language, which meant that even though I was
born here in Australia, Polish was my first language.
Nope.
(ALL CHAT IN POLISH)
My dad was born in Gdynia, which is in Northern Poland.
My mum in Warsaw, which is the capital of Poland.
Thanks for making the surowka. No problemo.
They both moved to Australia after the wall came down in 1989
and then they met at a Polish dance party several years later,
fell in love, and the rest is history.
(SOME CHAT IN POLISH)
Looks like it's a little bit tight.
Maybe, maybe, maybe.
So long as it's not an eel, I'm happy.
I think we got a stick fish.
Oh, no. There is a tug.
Ah, dammit. It's an eel.
Spit out the hook. Spit it out.
No, spit it out.
OK. Just relax.
There you go.
To catch eel and have to release it, it's frustrating.
I mean, it's a lot of protein, a lot of fat on there.
Big fella too.
Probably a couple of kilo on that one.
(SIGHS HEAVILY)
Oh, well.
C'est la vie.
I guess it's more greens for me today.
(MUTTERS SOFTLY)
(SIGHS)
The mind is like a body of water.
When it is agitated, it is hard to see the solutions clearly.
It's important to stop, slow down and let the water settle.
Yeah, the lack of food's definitely making things more challenging.
Not operating with as much energy as I normally do at all.
I haven't been for a while anyway. I'm really starting to feel it.
I think to myself, this is... this is tough and I'm suffering,
but it is all comparable.
My nan, she survived the Warsaw Uprising.
And that was over 100 days of starving,
while the Germans were bombing and shooting at them.
Hopefully that endurance is a hereditary trait.
That kind of put things, it puts things in perspective.
I mean...
..it's not so bad here.
It could be a hell of a lot worse.
Now, feet to the canopy...
..hands in, classic namu-namu yoga pose,
Otherwise known as the windscreen wiper move.
Very simple. Good for beginners.
I'm still recovering from that bout of diarrhoea,
five days it went for.
I wonder if after you've had a bout of diarrhoea in this forest,
if your gut biome adapts to what's here.
And so now I've got forest bacteria living inside me.
Or maybe my gut expelled them all.
Just like at some point in this journey, a forest will expel me.
I'm moving camp today.
This has been good here,
but I've gotta get closer to the water.
I've gotta reduce my everyday walking back and forth
and calorie expenditure.
Closer to the water and closer to the fishing spots.
So, with that, because we do have a dry spell right now,
I am going to get cracking.
My new camp's just a couple of metres above where the creek is,
and there's a really good firewood collection.
'Cause it gets the sun in the afternoon
and it gets the westerly wind, which dries the wood out.
So, great, great wood.
But it is windier down there.
It's a bit of a nervous day, there's that insecurity
of being out here without a roof over your head.
It's big job - moving all the equipment.
I think I'll do it in two loads.
And I've already got my ridge pole set up...
..so the tarp should just go over that pretty nicely.
New camp.
I'm a bit excited to get a proper little house set up.
Oh!
And make it really comfy.
Whew.
Good morning again, in Aotearoa.
A beautiful morning.
These are dirty undies, give them a rinse.
Me undies.
Oh, no, undies are trying to make a break for it.
Well, according to my calculations, today is Saturday,
and I plan to bring out my daughters.
There they are, my gorgeous girls.
Just see them.
My family's very important to me and I know that I will see them again,
especially when I'm taking care of myself
and being cautious to make sure I return fit and healthy
so I don't feel alone in here.
I've got another method in mind to help me dig,
look for worms.
Which way are we gonna stick it on now?
So, I'm gonna do something like that.
13 days without eating anything.
We've gotta do something to get bait and get a fish.
Now I'm getting a bit, you know, frustrated now,
No fish on the hook. What's going on?
My strongest skill set, I believe, is innovation.
I'm not an expert in anything, but I'm student of everything.
And there it is in reality.
Let's try it out.
I've studied primitive cultures, primitive techniques,
and I also practise modern techniques.
And I take bits and pieces from everywhere.
Got me a pick.
OK, let's get these worms, eh?
I think today's the day.
Pretty confident.
This is gonna make digging a much easier process, so...
OK, I'm gonna try digging here.
Burning calories in an efficient way is number one priority for me.
I don't want to be wasting energy doing things that are not productive.
Nup.
They're here.
There has to be worms here.
The strategy is to catch fish and have the fats and the protein.
That will give me a surplus of energy to do other things,
which is hunting or building my permanent shelter.
Without that energy surplus,
you're losing condition, and so that means
bringing on light-headedness, insecure footing and risking injury.
No, not there.
OK, plan B.
We're gonna walk to the fishing spot...
..get the line in with lures...
..and stay there the rest of the day.
Just gotta move on, adapt.
And if I don't adapt, I won't overcome and I'll be going home.
Not bad.
Not bad at all.
I'm using a fly lure.
See if I can get them to bite that. Come on.
One.
Well, even better if I can get two with one fly.
How many weeks can I endure without eating?
I know that a person can last 30 days without eating...
..just drinking water.
But by the third week or the fourth week, they're not very useful.
Come on, baby.
I don't want to return home, uh, depleted and too weak
because I need to look after the family.
Oh!
You never know, everything could turn around right now.
I lost the fly. Great.
The rocks, it just keeps getting stuck.
(SIGHS EXASPERATEDLY)
It's a disaster.
I lost another fly. Really not good.
Snagged on a...on a rock.
And, um...
..that means another hook lost.
Yeah, it's not good.
I think all that digging...
..took a bit of energy outta me.
I'd better be careful.
Like I said, two weeks today.
14 days.
The last couple of days has been...
..the technical term is "a shit show".
I think it's been three days now with no sun.
So, it's been three days
rain,
mist, cold, sandflies, and no sun.
My success here currently is weather dependent,
and that is not sustainable.
I can't let my fate rest
in the hands of the weather gods.
And that's why I think trout
is gonna be the key.
If trout is something I can... if I can crack the code,
I can catch them, I can take several, I can eat them.
They contain a bit of fat, a lot of protein.
And I'm more likely to catch a trout
than I am to shoot a red deer.
So, I'm gonna go to the mouth of the river
and see if there's any trout out on the corner again.
I saw a trout in the water.
Just on the edge of the weed bed.
Please work.
It's coming for it.
Got him.
I got a trout.
Got a freaking trout.
It's cold and sluggish, but it's big.
He's a big trout. Oh.
Ah! Oh, Jesus.
Oh, he's a spawned-out male.
That's why they're sluggish.
Then it's spawning.
Just going to bleed him.
Bleeding the fish makes it last longer.
Yes! Yes!
Oh, man,
I finally got food, fish.
Oh, that's cool.
That's a decent fish.
Trying to give myself, like, a... What do they call them?
A manicure,
and trim up my nails,
so that I can keep underneath them a little bit cleaner.
Much easier to maintain 'em when they're short.
Won't be playing any guitar out here.
Why?
Because I don't have a guitar and I can't play guitar.
Seems I got a few different projects and things to be...
..to be working on today.
I'd like to actually make a bit of a,
like a mud map in the sand
and sketch out sort of where I am here.
So, if I go for a walk,
I can relate to what direction I'll need to come
to get back to here.
Like in the military, we play out several grid squares.
And it might be like an area of operation
where you might have a mission plan where
you might be doing a recce in an area.
By having the mud mat and having orientated
with your features and your creeks and mountain peaks, things like that,
it allows me then to look at it and know where I've gone on a hunt.
Where I've walked to, where I propose to go.
My camp in here,
where I refer to as Sunny Banks around here,
Shady Banks around there.
No sign of any animals around this area.
This is a creek or a small river
that comes down from the alpine area, down through that lowland.
So, I'm hoping there's some hunting area over there.
Now I'm gonna have a, um, guggle of water, get into the bush,
go for an explore and a potential hunt.
If I see something that's on my list, I'll take it down.
Well, I've pushed out through the bushland
and all that crown fern, to the river that's to my north.
I was hoping I might, you know, come across some wildlife
in around the edge of the river.
No real fresh sign.
So, I think I'll make my way back to camp...
..um, via the lakefront instead of pushing back through that scrub.
Some of it's pretty thick going.
We get pockets of that crown fern, you can see behind me here.
You get pockets of that, and it's thick as,
it's pretty hard to get through.
Now, I'm gonna do a bit of a crossing of the creek here.
See if I can't knock out another half a kilometre
and get back to camp about 40 minutes earlier.
Wouldn't want to be trying to cross the river
with much more current than that.
I don't think my boots are waterproof.
Bloody busted-arse boot.
From the shoes up to my waist, I'm pretty soaking.
And that's recipe for hypothermia.
So, don't...don't muck around with that.
I've gotta go back and get some dry gear on.
Getting my feet wet was a dangerous thing to do.
When your feet get wet, they get cold and they become numb.
And once they're numb, you can't feel
the potential damage that's happening.
So, frost nip can turn into frostbite,
frostbite can turn into greater damage.
You need to be mindful that when your feet are numb,
you don't know what damage is happening.
First fish...at the lake.
He's an absolute stonker.
I reckon I could portion that up to five days.
So, I've basically got another week.
I don't want to say I've figured it out, because I haven't,
but I can tell you the flickier rod with the braided line
makes it easier to cast.
So, we're gonna go back to the same spot. Two fish is better than one.
Here's the thing, one thing to talk to you about...
..is that you're doing all this amazing stuff,
but you don't have anyone to share it with.
Normally when I go fishing,
I catch something or something happened,
I'll call my dad back in Sweden,
Dad is the one who sort of took me out fishing a lot.
So, most of the fishing knowledge I have I owe to him.
And he's always excited about it as well
because sort of the fishing I do now, in Australia mainly,
is sort of the same fishing he did when he was growing up, you know?
But hopefully...
..I'll stay in the competition long enough...
..and then in whatever time, I can tell them all the stories.
OK.
This is getting ridiculous, but I found another trout.
It would be crazy unlikely to get two, right?
I see him. He's out cruising, look.
But this is almost a 60-centimetre trout.
Got him.
Oh. Oh, shit.
We got a fight on the hands.
But he's hooked well.
(LAUGHS)
This one is more alive.
He's big too.
Oh, see if I can drag him into this little alcove here.
Shit.
Oh, this is...this feels so bad.
Oh, come on. He's not done.
It's gotta be so delicate, and I don't have a net.
I really need to make a net.
If I had a net, he would be up on land now.
Oh!
Still got power.
I just want to go outside him, so I can scoop him up on land.
Oh.
Oh, look at that stonker!
Jesus!
Where's my knife.
Oh!
He's in much better condition, this one.
Man, I was considering fishing, like, small fish
when I made this little rod.
I can't freaking believe two stonker trout.
Have a look at that one.
That is freaking epic.
Oh, so good!
Can you freaking believe it?
I can't. I can't catch a fish to help myself in two weeks.
Get that little rod sorted - bang, bang.
Two freaking stonker trout.
I would love my dad to see the fish.
My actual hiking boots,
they're soaking wet.
If you allow yourself to get wet
and you're not capable of getting yourself dry
or drying out your clothing after you are wet,
then you can seriously slip into hypothermia.
You can't stuff around with hypothermia.
So, that what I do want to try,
gonna get some gravel, put it into the pot,
heat the gravel up and pour that gravel
into my boots, see how that goes.
I think that's my only chance of getting my boots dry.
Now, I don't want the lid on it because I want the steam to escape.
With the lid on there, it's just gonna condense on the top.
Yeah, I don't know whether that was a stupid idea or not.
I think that will work.
I can see steam coming out through the leather.
It's either that or it melts the soles
and we end up having to barefoot.
(GROANS)
Things that make food spoil
are basically oxygen and moisture.
That's why you salt things, because you drag out the moisture
and then it's an environment that bacteria can't grow,
so it doesn't go off.
So, when you smoke, you do a similar thing,
you just put a... it's called a bark on the meat
so it sort of seals the surface.
So you get, like, really dry, leathery outer.
And then you decrease the moisture content,
and then it lasts longer.
The problem here is everything is moist.
So, even though it's cold, it's not gonna last as long
as if it's just cold and dry.
So, I gotta be aware about that.
I'm gonna go and get some tinder.
Basically I just need a fire, and if a fire,
I'm gonna eat good for several days, that's the main thing.
We'll see.
If I can get this stuff to just spark up a little bit...
..then I might have a fire.
But...
..I'm not so sure...
..because it's literally wet to touch.
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
The twigs are soaked.
Oh, shit.
So, went from nice and clear blue
to cloudy and rainy in...
..20 minutes.
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
I probably won't get a fire tonight, or won't bother.
There's a million and one things you can do in nature
until you're stuck under a tarp and it rains.
I collected all this wood and it's sitting out in the rain now.
So, there's no real point.
It's hard enough as it is to start on damp tinder and stuff,
but then damp tinder, wet wood during the rain,
it's like I'm just wasting resources even trying.
I'm sort of trying to figure out what to do.
I got the trout, but...
..I can't make a fire, I can't boil water, I can't eat.
What happens if there's soaking weather for, like, seven days?
(THUNDER ROLLS)
Another big flash.
..and three, four...
(THUNDER CRASHES)
It's about a kilometre away.
Sounds like out to the west.
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
There's a huge mountain out behind me here.
There's a thunderstorm raging around its peak.
It'd been going on for about 10 minutes now.
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
It's storming.
Strong winds.
There's a very good storm coming through.
It's raining pretty heavily.
The wind is shaking everything around.
(THUNDER ROLLS)
I am a little bit concerned.
I did hear a couple of limbs falling.
If I had a branch come down or something
and put a big hole in the tarp, that's my game done.
Man, that wind, it's brutal!
It's like you hold your breath,
just waiting for it to peel back your home...
..leave you totally exposed.
I guess I'm scared enough to have my headlight on
and my emergency tap-out in my hand.
I can't sleep.
It's just the noise is full-on.
VOICEOVER: Alone Australia, powered by Kia,
it's the ultimate human endurance challenge.
The battle is on to survive alone in the rugged New Zealand wilderness,
with the winner taking home a prize worth $250,000.
Oh, good morning.
Yeah, there was a bit of rain and strong winds last night.
Glad I put the extra guy ropes in, and shelter's still standing.
Did the job, kept me dry.
Just coming down to the water.
I suppose with all this rain,
it means that the water level's not gonna be dropping either.
It's gonna make finding food harder.
I'm still eating the weeds that sort of wash up on the beach.
They taste like garbage, but it's food.
I don't like it, but I'm used to it.
Maybe if I keep doing it long enough I'll start liking it. Dunno.
Is that how vegans do it?
Yeah, you can see the water level's come up.
Uh, it's moved from the last stick to the next stick.
Water levels are still way too high to go
foraging around the shoreline,
with all that really unpalatable greenery growing on the water's edge.
Besides, even with the lack of palatable food,
this is just a really, really, really lovely experience.
I'm just gearing up to go on a morning hunt.
As a plant-based eater,
out here I gave myself permission to eat the meat I catch.
It's the one time I've actually gone, "It's OK, it's alright."
(TWIGS CRACK) Good.
So, I'm letting everyone know I'm arriving.
I'm not gonna do anything.
While I'm here, I'll check out this big tree.
What have we got here?
A definite possum nest.
Pretty hollow inside this big old tree.
I can see the inside has scrapings on the interior of the wood there.
Wouldn't you die if you just saw a bloody possum down in there?
This darkened stain here
is that oily kind of slick that they leave on their trail.
Possums like to have this safe known path in their head
for when they get frightened or they need to run home,
and they follow it - the same path - and they know it.
Very cool.
Alright, back on the go.
Can I do this?
There's deer out here.
In my family, bow hunting was pretty much everything.
My dad, maybe he thought I was gonna be a boy or something.
I don't even know what age he first put a bow in my hand.
I reckon as soon as I could hold something, he probably did.
He was sponsored by all sorts of companies to be the bow hunter.
And his nickname was 'The Bear'.
Yeah, we did a lot of bow hunting.
It's actually his quiver,
his 30-year-old quiver he gave me to bring out here.
I was pretty proud to bring that out for him.
I thought it might be the last journey it really gets.
(LAUGHS) It's looking a bit dilapidated.
I've gotta get my head together.
If I don't start bringing in some good quality proteins
it will really shorten my time out here.
I don't really want to kill a deer.
I don't know if I can.
So, it comes down to that, really.
JACK: I have not caught any trout...
..and so I'm abandoning that.
So, I'm gonna take a walk nice and slow through the area
that I've put the trail cam on,
hoping to bump into a deer.
Hopefully with the cold weather, maybe the deer and pigs
have moved down a little bit.
Last...last ditch effort, eh?
I don't give up easy,
but two weeks without protein and food, I feel desperate.
This is dear poo.
Deer poo because it's pointy on one end and indented on the other, see?
I like this spot as an ambush spot.
And, so, I'm gonna take some salt
and set up a trap for deer.
I picked salt as one of my items
because I know for a fact that salt is an essential part of life.
Animals that don't live near the sea...
..they crave it because you can't get enough of it.
So, what I'm doing is I'm spreading some salt here,
and hopefully they'll be able to pick up this scent.
I don't know if it will be successful here.
It may help, it may not.
(MOUTHS WORDS)
The eyes play tricks on you sometimes.
I thought the bit of the lock...
was the back part of a deer.
It wasn't.
Running out of options. Running out of time.
I'd love to stay here another number of weeks,
but I can't do that without food.
Oh, I don't know... I don't know what else to try.
I believe that it is coming to an end now,
my time here.
I'm not at full strength.
I can feel my body getting weaker.
I need to get back home in one piece to my family.
Looks like tonight is my last night here.
Can't say I didn't try.
I tried my best.
That's all I wanted, to try.
And come back in one piece.
VOICEOVER: Alone Australia, powered by Kia,
it's the ultimate human endurance challenge.
The battle is on to survive alone in the rugged New Zealand wilderness,
with the winner taking home a prize worth $250,000.
If I can just get you to stand on the scales.
We're really happy for you to carry on.
Yep. Good. All good.
OK, Jack, I'm very happy for you to continue.
Uh, the numbers are all fine. Yep.
So, we're medically clear to carry on.
OK, great. I'm glad that I'm still fit and healthy.
It's been 16 days without protein and I can feel it.
I can feel in the body.
My energy levels are low.
Um, I want to finish on a high, and so I'd like to pull the pin.
It is a hard decision, but...
..it's a clear, logical decision for me
because I can feel my body getting weaker.
Your mind starts thinking of...of your family
and the important things in your life.
I think if I continue, uh, I'll be putting myself at risk
and someone else's life at risk,
if I get injured.
I'm officially tapping out because I wanna finish strong.
I'm a predator
and I wanna finish as a predator, not a victim of the wilderness.
It's important for me to go home healthy
because, you know, coming out on this experience,
on Alone, to me, it's simply an extension
of what I've already been doing in my life - hunting alone.
And, what's got me through all this time, all these years...
..is being careful, not doing foolish things.
I promised myself that I wouldn't be going overboard
with the risk, so that I can make it back in one piece and strong.
Sometimes it's not easy, but it has to be done.
In my heart, I feel I've done my best,
and I would say that's fishing and that's hunting.
Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't.
And that's life.
I think the reality of surviving out here long term
has just dawned on me.
I was behind this log
and it was like a camera rolling through the back of my mind.
I went into this little moment where I felt separate from myself.
It's like a flash.
I just keep seeing a deer in front of me
with beautiful eyes, and I kill it.
And then I look over and there's a fawn coming along,
and I'm like, "What the hell? I've just killed its mother."
Ugh. It was horrible.
You're gonna have to sit down
and think about what you're gonna do about this shit, Tamika.
I've been feeling this decision coming for a few days.
I think I'm hanging up the bow. (LAUGHS)
I just realised I can't take a life
of another being that cares for another being.
I don't think I could do it.
I think it would be horrible.
I know, I came on this show fully believing that I could do it.
I thought hunger would drive me to do it.
But I realised that the last few years of being vegetarian,
or plant-based, has really altered my psyche
and altered how I feel.
And I just...I just can't do it.
It's the suffering of the animal that I can't handle.
But that really alters how I view my time here
and what I'm capable of doing.
And it's actually very limiting now if that's my decision.
But I choose hunger over killing at this point.
And if that shortens my time, then so be it.
I'm done with that whole time thing.
So, I'm really pleased I've let go of that.
It feels so much better.
Oh, shit!
Oh, man, how stupid.
MAN: Oh!
Stamina is not where it used to be.
(WOMAN SOBS)
I've worked so hard to get to this point, to leave.
MAN: Pins-and-needle sort of sensation
through the tips of my toes.
The joint itself sort of seems to be a bit swollen, like frostbite.
(RINGING TONE)
Captions by Red Bee Media (c) SBS Australia 2024