[music playing]
NARRATOR: 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.
ANDREAS: Look at that stonker.
Last night, there was deer all around me.
That's freaking delicious.
SUZAN: I know how tough it's going to be.
[sobs] Oh my god, I miss them.
You gotta feel safe.
Otherwise, you just die out here.
KRZYSZTOF: It doesn't feel as bad as it looks.
It feels worse.
This [bleep] just got real.
Jesus.
I'm scared enough to have an emergency tap-out in my hand.
NARRATOR: And the last person standing,
they take home $250,000.
SURVIVOR: Somebody help me.
I am the captain of my ship.
LEANNE: This is Leanne.
I'm officially tapping out.
Yeah, I'm officially tapping out.
Hey, this is Chase.
I'm officially tapping out.
JACK: I don't want to stop.
I want to catch a fish.
If I can't catch fish, I can't stay here.
[coughs] It's some sort of a gastro bug.
And I just feel so weak.
RICK: The boot's coming apart.
Yeah, they're disintegrating.
As soon as they're sent to test us.
TAMIKA: I've been veggo 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.
[suspenseful music]
Ah, 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.
Woke up with 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.
Right, so 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.
Maybe they don't speak English.
[speaking polish]
When I first came to this world, it was definitely
into a Polish household.
[speaking polish]
With that came the language, which
meant that even though I was born here in Australia,
Polish is my first language.
Nope.
[speaking polish]
KRZYSZTOF: My dad was born in Gdynia,
which is in northern Poland.
My mom in Warsaw, which is the capital of Poland.
Thanks for making the surowka.
No problemo.
KRZYSZTOF: 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.
[speaking polish]
It 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.
Oh, dammit, it's an eel.
Spit out the hook.
Spit it out.
OK.
Just relax.
There you go.
To catch eel and have to release it, it's-- it's frustrating.
I mean, it's a lot of protein and a lot of fat on there.
Big fella, too.
Probably a couple of kilo on that one.
[sighs]
Oh, well.
C'est la vie.
Well, I guess it's more greens for me today.
[muttering] Rabble, rabble.
The mind is like a body of water.
When it is agitated, it is hard to see the solutions clearly.
It is important to stop, slow down, and let the water settle.
Yeah, the lack of food is definitely
making things more challenging.
I'm 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.
And 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.
It 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, you know, classic namu-namu yoga pose.
Otherwise known as windscreen wiper blades.
[vocalizing]
Very simple.
Good for beginners.
I'm still recovering from that bout of diarrhea.
Five days it went for.
I wonder if after you've had a bout of diarrhea
in this forest, if your gut biome adapts to what's here.
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,
the forest will expel me.
I'm leaving camp today.
This has been good here.
But I've got to get closer to the water.
I've got to 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.
And my new camp's just a couple of meters
above where the creek is.
And there's a really good firewood collection
because 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.
It's that insecurity of being out here
without a roof over your head.
It's a 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,
[exhales],, and make it really comfy.
[music playing]
In the mornings, the--
[inaudible]
The beautiful mornings.
These are dirty undies.
Give 'em a little rinse.
[groans] The undies.
bang
Oh, no.
Undies are trying to make a break for it.
Well, according to my calculations,
today it's Saturday.
And I plan to bring up my daughters.
There they are, my gorgeous girls.
To 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 going to 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.
I'm getting a bit, you know, frustrated, you know?
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
a student of everything.
And there it is in reality.
Let's try it out.
I've studied primitive cultures, primitive techniques.
And I also practice modern techniques.
And I'll take bits and pieces from everywhere.
Got me a pick.
OK.
Let's get these worms, eh?
I think today's the day.
I'm pretty confident.
This is gonna make digging a much easier process.
So, OK, I'm going to try digging here.
Burning calories in an efficient way
is a number one priority for me.
I don't want to be wasting energy doing things that
are not productive.
No.
They're here.
There has to be worms here.
My strategy is to catch fish and have the fats and the protein.
That will give you a surplus of energy
to do other things, which is hunting or building
more permanent shelter.
Without that energy surplus, you're losing condition.
And so that means bringing on lightheadedness,
insecure footing, and risking injury.
No, not there.
OK, plan B. We're going to 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 him 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 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 rock sinker just keeps getting stuck.
It's a disaster.
I lost another fly.
Really not good.
Snagged on a-- on a rock.
And that means another hook lost.
Yeah, it's not good.
I think all that digging took a bit of energy out of me.
I better be careful.
Marks say two weeks today, 14 days.
The last couple of days has been,
the technical term is a [bleep] show.
I think it's been three days now with no sun.
So it's been three days rain, mist, cold, sand flies,
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.
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.
They have 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.
I got him.
I've got a trout.
Got a freaking trout.
Oh, he's cold and sluggish, but he's big.
He's a big trout.
Oh.
Oh, Jesus.
Oh, he's a spawned out male.
That's why they're sluggish.
They've been spawning.
I'm just gonna bleed him.
Bleeding the fish will make it last longer.
Yes.
Oh, man, I finally got food, fish.
Oh, that's cool.
That's a decent fish.
[suspenseful music]
Gonna give myself what I call a manicure.
Gonna trim up my nails so that I can keep underneath them
a little bit cleaner.
Much easier to maintain them 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.
I seem to have 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'd lay 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 map 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've proposed to go.
My camp in here.
And what I refer to as sunny banks around here.
Shady banks around there.
No sign of any animals around this area.
This is like 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.
So I'm gonna have a guzzle 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.
[suspenseful music]
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 come across some wildlife,
you know, on the edge of the river.
No real fresh sign.
I think I'll make my way back to camp via the lakefront instead
of pushing back through that scrub.
Some of it's pretty thick going.
We get pockets of that crown fern.
Crown fern you can see behind me here.
We have pockets of that.
And it's thick.
It's pretty hard to get through.
I'm gonna do a bit of a crossing of the creek here.
See if I can't knock out another half a kilometer.
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.
Old, busted-ass boot.
And the shoes up to my waist, I'm pretty soaking.
And that's a recipe for hypothermia.
So I 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 frostnip 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.
[music playing]
First fish at the lake is an absolute stonker.
I reckon I could portion that up to five days.
So basically, I 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
make it easier to cast.
So I'm 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'd be crazy unlikely to get two, right?
I see him.
He's out cruising there.
This is almost a 60-centimeter trout.
Got him.
Oh, [bleep].
We got a fighter on our hands.
Hope he's hooked well.
[laughs] This one is more alive.
He's big, too.
See if I can drag him into this little alcove here.
[bleep].
Oh, this is-- this feels so bad.
Oh, come on.
He's not done.
It's gonna be so delicate.
And I don't have a net.
I really need to make a net.
If I had a net, he'd be up on land now.
Oh, he's still got power.
I just want to go outside on him so I can scoop him up on land.
[groans] Oh, look at that stonker.
Jesus.
Where's my knife?
[exhales] 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 these fish.
[music playing]
My actual hiking boots, they're--
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 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.
And I don't want the lid on it because I
want the steam to escape.
Put the lid on there, it's just gonna condense on the top.
You know, 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 souls
and I end up having to barefoot.
[suspenseful music]
ANDREAS: [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 grow.
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 was cold and dry.
So I've got to be aware about that.
I'm gonna go and get some tinder.
Basically, I just need a fire.
And with a fire, I'm going to eat good for several days.
That's the main thing.
We'll see.
If I can get this stuff to spark up a little bit,
then I might have a fire.
But I'm not so sure.
Because this is literally wet to touch.
The twigs are soaked.
Oh, [bleep].
So it went from nice and clear blue to cloudy and rainy
in 20 minutes.
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 when it rains.
I collected all this wood.
And it's sitting out in the rain now.
So there's not really a 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, mis-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 it's soaking wet for like seven days?
[thunder rumbling]
[suspenseful music]
Another big flash.
[thunder rumbling]
It's about a kilometer away.
It sounds like out to the west.
There's a huge mountain behind me here.
There's a thunderstorm raging around its peak.
It's been going on for about 10 minutes now.
That is stormy.
Strong wind.
There's a bit of a storm coming through.
It's raining pretty heavily.
Wind just shaking everything around.
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 or something, that's-- that's my game done.
Man, that wind is 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.
[suspenseful music]
Oh, good morning.
Yeah, there was a bit of rain and strong winds last night.
Glad I put the extra guy ropes in.
And, um, the shelter's still standing.
Did the job, kept me dry.
I'm just coming down to the water.
I suppose with all this rain, it means that the water level
is not going to be dropping either.
So that's gonna make finding food harder.
I'm still eating the weeds that sort of wash up
on-- 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.
Don't know.
Is that how vegans do it?
Yeah, you can see the water level's come up.
It's moved from the last stick to the next stick.
Water levels are still way too high to go foraging
around the shoreline, collect 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.
[suspenseful music]
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 all right.
Good, so 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, it's 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.
All right, 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 at 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 got to get my head together.
If I don't start bringing in some good quality proteins,
that'd 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.
[suspenseful music]
JACK: I have not caught any trout.
And so I'm abandoning that.
So I'm going to take a walk nice and slow through the area
that I 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.
I don't give up easy.
But two weeks without protein and, uh, food, I
feel desperate.
This is deer poo.
Deer poo because it's pointy on one end
and indented on the other, OK?
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 they can't get enough of it.
So what I'm doing is I'm spreading some saltpeter.
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.
Oh.
The eyes play tricks on you sometimes.
I thought that bit of the log 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.
Yeah, I don't know.
Don't know what else to look for.
I believe that it is coming to an end now.
In 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 till you try.
I tried my best.
That's all I wanted, to try and come back in one piece.
[music playing]
[suspenseful music]
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.
The numbers are all fine.
Yeah?
So you're medically cleared 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 it in the body.
My energy levels are low.
I wanted 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 your family
and-- and the-- the important things in your life.
I think if I continue, I'd be putting myself
at risk and someone else's life at risk, if I get injured.
I'm officially tapping out because I
want to finish strong.
I'm a predator.
And I want to 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 alone,
to me it's simply an extension of what I've already been doing
in my life, hunting alone.
And, uh, 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'd 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 kept 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.
[groans] It was horrible.
You're gonna have to sit down and think about what you're
gonna do about this [bleep], Tamika.
I've been feeling this decision coming for a few days.
I think I'm hanging up the bow.
I just realized I can't take a life of another being that
cares for another being.
I don't think I can do it.
I think it'll 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 realized 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.
ANDREAS: Oh, [bleep].
Oh, man, that was stupid.
Oh.
Stamina is not what it used to be.
SUZAN: [sobbing] I've worked too hard to get to this point
and leave.
RICK: Pins and needle sensations through the tips of my toes.
The joint itself sort of seems to be swollen like frostbite.
[phone ringing]