Good evening, and welcome to the "Alone Australia Season 2--
Reunion."
I'm Hamish Blake, and I'm here tonight
to see if I can survive a whole hour in a TV studio
with only minimal snacks.
And I can only bring 10 essential people.
I thought on behalf of all of us that have loved the show
and have a lot of questions, I would bring the participants
from "Alone Australia Season 2."
Tonight, we're going to be talking with them
about their time on the land and comparing their strategies.
And we've also got lots of never-before-seen footage
and some massive revelations.
They got 10 deer.
No, they didn't.
[laughter]
Tonight, we are going to get the good stuff, all trout, no eels.
[laughter]
I am genuinely a superfan of "Alone."
I'm thrilled to be here.
They have just watched the final episode.
They've just finished watching it together.
Tonight, we finally get the chance
to compare their experiences.
I can't wait to hear what they think
and how they feel about the final result.
Speaking of the final result, let's start
with a massive round of applause.
Krzysztof, congratulations, mate.
[applause]
Thanks.
Well done.
Mate, it was probably the most unorthodox way to win.
What's it like watching it back?
It's definitely a unique experience.
I was not expecting it.
I was-- I thought I was going to be medically pulled,
and that was it.
It was weird, surreal.
It still hasn't sunk in.
From where I sat, I thought probably one of the standout
features of your experience was your positivity
and your positive mindset.
And we do have a little bit of a clip to watch for how that went
throughout the series.
Another beautiful day in paradise.
(SINGING) We're on our way to launch another boat
And hopefully catch lots of fish and lots of fish
(SPEAKING) Wow, anyone, if they ever get the chance,
come out here and check out this unknown location.
It's stunningly beautiful.
Mm.
Overall, life is good.
(SINGING) I'm making hound tongue soup
(SPEAKING) Nothing special, but it's better than nothing.
Who does the camera love?
Camera loves you.
There's snow on them mountains right there.
This place is just so cool, seriously.
This is Krzysztof, and I am officially ordering a pizza.
And you thought I was going to tap.
Not happening.
Mate, was that your strategy going in, to go,
I will always try and veer positively?
I don't think that was a strategy.
I think that's just me.
HAMISH: Yeah, right.
The other thing that you talked about on the show
was your neurodiversity, and it resonated with viewers.
Is that something you're really glad you talked about?
Yeah, I was a little bit afraid
and a little bit apprehensive about what the reaction would
be.
But now that I've spoken about it, I feel really good.
The feedback that I've gotten from people
has just been nothing but support.
There's people that have reached out, that are friends are going,
yeah, me too.
It's-- I'm great-- grateful that there's someone out there
talking about it.
Yeah, it's been nice.
I think it's an awesome thing.
What is it that happens when you're out there by yourself
for so long that-- that makes you want to face those things
and want to open up and, you know,
then share them with the camera?
It is interesting in conversation
because in the survival field, they talk about, you know,
the three minutes without air, you know,
the three hours without shelter, three days without water.
But they're going to obviously three weeks without food,
and then they go into the three months without companionship.
And when you're out there alone for the period of time someone's
got to spent there, you're looking to talk to somebody,
and you're looking to express the things that you really feel
like you need to talk about.
And you might sit there in silence for half an hour
around the campfire.
Then something will come up.
And I think that's--
that sort of which get captured.
The fire can often bring out honesty and openness
that a person possibly can't, yeah.
When we're in real life, we've got-- yeah,
we've got things to distract us.
Mm.
HAMISH: Beautiful.
Suzan, we can only have one winner.
What was your reaction when you-- because you've only fresh
off seeing the-- exactly the placings.
You've just seen the episode.
What was your reaction?
It's pretty difficult because there's, you know,
one day between.
I was really pleased to see Krzysztof there at the end.
Yeah.
Yeah, that-- that made me happy.
It made me sort of second guess if I made the right decision.
But then, you know, I have to go back and remember
that on minimal exertion, I'm getting this really big, heavy
heart rate, and something was just not right there.
And I really made the call because my body was saying
I need something, and it needed nutrition.
HAMISH: Yeah.
And it was really--
With some help, yeah.
Yeah, it really played out because 12 hours after I left,
I was in the emergency department--
Were you really?
--of a big hospital with a drip in my arm and my heart
being monitored.
So I made the right call at the right time.
Obviously, yeah, you made--
SUZAN: Yeah.
--absolutely the right call.
And like so many people on this show,
we saw your mind was so strong, going right up to that point
where your body was just like, hey,
I've been eating weeds for 63 days tonight.
Could you please feed me?
Exactly.
All right, there was still one other person in contention
in that final episode, our Swedish model, slash,
mountain man, slash, hunter, slash, provider, slash, man
mountain.
Andreas, you mentioned in the last episode
when, I remember, on the beach, they came to get you and said,
are you proud of yourself?
And you're like, not yet.
Are you proud yet?
Not really, I think.
Really?
I think-- no, I think if you're a competitive person
and you have a certain goal in mind,
and if you don't fulfill that goal, I think I did OK.
HAMISH: Interesting.
And that's about it.
Like, I think there's things I could have done different
probably, a couple of things.
What would you do different?
What are they?
Oh, just minor things, I think.
I think I would be--
if I knew what I know now, I'd probably be a lot more passive.
The only vegetable matter I really ate were the mamaku
fronds, and that would be a good 45-minute walk to get them.
This is the hard thing, I think,
for viewers to understand.
Because to understand how long an hour and a half round trip
is every day, that's an hour and a half episode, not
a very exciting one.
But that's the really difficult thing
for us to understand at home, just how much
effort is being put into stuff.
Does anyone else feel like they spent too much energy?
I mean, aside from deer, which we'll get to later in the show,
but too much energy foraging for-- for such a small return?
Yeah.
HAMISH: Yeah?
Yeah.
HAMISH: Is that a universal field?
Even, like, for fire.
Like, it's not just foraging for food,
but it could be foraging for wood materials, bedding,
the things you think you need.
And you just-- and you get fixated on them as well.
So all of a sudden, you've realized you've just spent three
days fluffing up your bed.
It's like, really--
It makes you comfortable, and it puts you in a good mindset.
It did.
But-- oh, firewood, you've got three weeks of firewood
ready to go, but you've just passed out, asleep, you know.
It's like--
So it seems like--
I mean, it's a game of constant tradeoffs, really.
Like, it sounds like minute to minute,
you're just always evaluating the trade-off.
Yeah.
HAMISH: Would that be a fair thing to say?
Absolutely.
I mean, Andreas is like, you know,
it's so easy for us on the couch to watch the episode.
It's obviously so much different when you're out there
and you're just always making the best decision
that you can in the moment.
You dragged in some big fish, to borrow a term that you were very
fond of, some stonkers.
Yeah.
Oh, Look at that stonker.
Can you give us the dictionary definition of a stonker?
No idea.
I don't actually even know--
I don't actually know where I picked up the word.
SUZAN: It's a feeling.
ANDREAS: And it was--
It's a feeling.
It was-- my first thought when I heard it was,
I can't remember saying it, and where did I pick up that word?
I think it was quite fitting.
Like, I like it, but--
Well, I mean, it's probably the raw emotion
of catching a fish.
Yeah.
And there weren't that many fish caught
in the-- in the series.
I mean, Tamika, you were another person-- like,
your sound effects when you caught a fish, it was like--
I know.
[grunts] [laughs]
You can't fake that stuff.
I know.
Did you-- how did you feel watching it back?
Oh, yeah, it was a bit embarrassing.
[laughs]
HAMISH: But not really, I mean--
No, it's a feeling.
That was the most joyous moment out there, was that fish.
It's-- it's-- you can't stop it.
Oh, mate, we all felt it.
We were like, that is the-- this is the most primal noise a human
has ever made.
It was just like sheer relief and awe, comes out as stonkers.
Yeah.
We all know, like, hindsight is 20/20, and it's--
I'm front and center with this, very easy to sit at home
and go, oh, what about this, what about that?
But is there any-- any big ones where people would have done
something differently, given their-- given their chance
again?
Not tap out.
Not--
[laughter]
Maybe not think too much about--
because I found what I did was think too much about all
the things I couldn't do.
Interesting.
Like, you can't have eel.
You can't cut, you know, a tree that's this big or this small
or take this.
It starts-- you start to get caught up in that.
And then you kind of think, well, what can I do?
It's interesting, comes back to that positivity thing,
doesn't it? LEANNE: Yeah, it does.
It really does.
You're thinking of what can you do
or the things that are out of your control.
Yeah.
And I think, yeah, I just kind of got really caught up in that.
All right.
In a similar vein, if we sort of said,
all right, we've got the bus ready to go,
and you can all go back in tomorrow.
Hands up, who'd go back in?
Same place?
HAMISH: Wow, I guess we've got-- we've got eight yeses.
Can you take someone?
One no and one conditional.
Conditional, yeah, definitely conditional.
So you don't-- you wouldn't want your location again?
Absolutely not.
HAMISH: Had enough of that beach?
Yeah, never going to see it ever again.
[laughter]
You sure about that?
Yeah, 100%.
Well, look, that was sort of the people towards the very end,
from those final people to the very first to go.
On just night two, in episode 2, we
had our first medical extraction,
and it was very scary to watch.
Mike, let's just remind everyone--
I'm sure you probably don't want to go through this again,
but let's remind everyone how full on that night was for you.
[tense music]
How are you going?
Man, I'm scared, actually.
Yeah, yeah, I can tell on the phone.
So I'll just take your blood pressure there.
It will just come really intensely.
How old are you, Mike?
60.
Yeah, I understand.
Yeah.
That's OK.
Yeah.
Pretty scary experience.
[sighs]
It is the right thing, Mike, to call us.
Um-- yeah.
Well.
MIKE (VOICEOVER): I thought I was going to die.
I really thought I was going to die.
And it's not my time.
It's not my time to die.
[sniffles]
[chuckles]
Mike, you're laughing and crying watching it back.
Yeah.
It's still obviously very, very real and raw.
Have your kids seen that?
They have, yeah.
HAMISH: What-- like, what was your kids' response when your--
when your family saw that?
Well, they said they're so proud that I
did the right thing.
HAMISH: Totally.
I did-- I did do what I did on the night, yeah.
Yeah.
We're so proud of you, too.
Ahh.
You went and got checked out in a hospital.
What was-- what was the problem?
The problem was that I had--
like, a lot of us here, we'd sort
of fattened up for Christmas.
We tried to put a little bit more weight prior to going out,
all fat, mainly, as a source of food down the track.
And in that process, I put on 13 kilos.
And my metabolism reacted adversely.
And the pain I actually had was simply reflux.
Right.
MIKE: Yeah.
And you'd obviously never had that before.
No, no, not like that.
And-- and the sequence of events sort of transpired
over nearly two hours.
The pain came, it dissipated.
It came back 45 minutes later.
I sat upright.
And after that, on the third occasion,
it became quite intense.
And that's when I started thinking, wow,
could this be something more?
If this is a heart attack, I might not see my kids again.
The fourth time it happened, it was so intense.
I shot bolt upright, clenching my chest and went, no, I can't.
I've got to ring up and say, I'm having these terrible pains
in my chest.
Mate, good on you.
You did the right thing.
You're out there with a sat phone and GPS
for that exact reason.
Yeah.
It's interesting to see how far you can go, but not
at any cost.
And, you know, well done.
Look, everyone's "Alone" experience is really different,
as we're hearing.
But something that is very important for every single
person, no matter how long or short their stay,
is everyone's shelter.
We want to have a quick look here at all of this season's
shelters.
I'll show you my building style.
Oh, yeah, you walk around and you--
you pick up a bit of wood, you look for a hole,
and you put it in.
So that's the first natural building course
I'll be conducting.
All right, some great shots.
Rick, there was some online querying,
I think, as to the sturdiness of your shelter.
I mean, for someone that went so deep, there were people going,
like, is this the most solid shelter we've ever seen here?
But was that part of your plan?
It certainly was, to a fair degree.
There's probably three main reasons
I kept mine quite simplistic, and one of them
is definitely the light levels.
Where my shelter was back in there, it was dark.
I'd have to put a headlamp on to get batteries for the camera,
whatever it was, yeah.
I couldn't find a sunnier position within proximity.
So sunlight was a factor.
HAMISH: Yeah, it was.
A lot of natural lighting was important.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
One I underestimated, the lack of sunlight
was something that hit pretty heavy.
The other one was being able to lay down.
If I was to hear an animal, a deer or a possum moving around,
I'd like to be able to just roll left and right
and see potentially what it was.
That's one factor.
Makes total sense.
Also, driftwood-- to make anything structural around me,
driftwood cove, as I called it, it was about 400 meters away.
And there's a massive, big log you'd need to climb over
to bring it back.
And I-- I don't want to waste that energy bringing it
all the way back.
So whilst I could have put a bit more around it,
it predominantly kept me pretty dry.
All in all, I wouldn't change it a great deal.
Tamika, on the other end of the spectrum of not wanting
to use too much driftwood, you might have used all
the driftwood in New Zealand.
[sighs] I think I did.
But it was an absolute work of art.
It was-- it was a work of art, your shelter.
Someone tweeted, "Tamika's shelter looks so good it could
be put up for rent for at least $600 a week if it was
in Sydney."
Probably would have, yeah.
Did you-- did you get very attached to your home?
Attached is one word, obsessed might be another.
HAMISH: Yeah, right.
It became a bit of a focus.
HAMISH: That's good.
It was kind of, like, my daily meditation.
Oh, that bit of wood there, that'll go home with me.
It was something to do, apart from being everything
that a shelter should be.
I probably could have saved a bit of energy.
But that's interesting, though, that it became-- like,
everyone needed stuff to pass the time.
And that became your--
Yeah, that was mine.
HAMISH: --that became your project, right.
Yeah.
All right, I--
this-- this may or may not work, but who--
who here-- if you couldn't have your shelter, who's would you
have chosen?
All right, so, Andreas, you can't have your shelter,
whose shelter are you picking?
In my location or a different location?
In your location.
Mm, Krzysztof's.
CONTESTANT: Yeah.
ANDREAS: He had a really good shelter.
I liked his insulation of the walls.
CONTESTANT: Yup.
HAMISH: Is that a common answer?
I've seen a lot of nodding for Krzysztof's.
Yes.
Tamika's, it was a good, the fireplace.
Jack, you'd go with Tamika's?
Yeah, yeah.
CONTESTANT: Yep.
HAMISH: Anyone else-- any other options apart from Tamika
and Krzysztof's?
I'd go--
Rick's.
I'd go Rick's--
I'd go with Krzysztof's.
--or Jack's, yeah.
Yeah, OK.
I like the minimal.
Now, no matter which version of "Alone" you do in the world,
it is a tough, tough competition.
But whereas on the US version, they'll
say, like, a one in a thousand chance a bear might bite you,
for our participants in New Zealand
this year, there was a 100% chance that a thousand sandflies
would bite you per minute.
Everyone, look at the monitor here.
I just want to see if this triggers you.
Does this?
[laughter]
Does that take you back?
That's-- Rick's--
Rick's going-- Rick's going--
all right, we'll take it off.
We'll take it off just because even
I'm getting annoyed by that, and I wasn't there.
You can't take it off.
OK, let's have a little look at what it was actually
like in real life.
[nature music]
Imagine the worst time you've been attacked by mozzies
and times it by, like, 20.
That's what these sandflies are like.
They're just relentless.
Ugh, learning to deal with them is an experience in itself.
Like, they are ferocious, [bleep].
I think I hate them more than I hate mosquitoes.
These midges, the sandfly, oh, it's
a challenge keeping it together.
I think they'd get even the most hardened Buddhist monk to crack.
Where do they come from?
Where do they eat when I'm not here?
Ahh, haa, ahh!
The god of the forest had a daughter,
and she was the goddess of death.
And she sent the namu-namu, the sandflies,
to this land and this lake to protect it from people.
Yeah, it does a pretty good job, I think.
[laughs]
Ugh.
Ow.
I think I've got a couple of hundred bites on me now.
I've got them on my hands as well.
Nasty.
Even as you're doing that, you can see sandflies on the camera.
And at home, I'm watching, going, don't do it,
don't show us-- like, don't take more clothes off.
Now, you run hot, and so we're sleeping with minimal clothing
on.
Hot-blooded South American, so.
Not the best thing to be around that many sandflies.
No.
Some mornings, I'd wake up, and yeah, they bit me
in some unmentionable places.
Do you still-- like, is this still scarring,
either physical or mental?
No, no, no scarring.
And they only got me when I was making my bed.
Wow.
[snaps] All those bites were from one moment?
Not all of them, but the majority
were, yeah, because I was distracted.
I was focusing on-- on making my bed.
And they just-- because I wasn't moving around.
When you move around a lot, they're-- they're not on you.
Oh, cool, so you just have to stay moving for 100 days?
That's right.
I'm seeing a lot of nodding here, a lot of flashbacks.
Did anyone anticipate that something so tiny
would have such an outsized effect?
No, nothing prepares you for that.
I have a bit of a thing with sandflies.
My parents live in sandfly country.
So the fireplace, I literally was
like, I'm going to smoke these bastards out.
Good.
So, yeah, it just shows, though.
It doesn't matter the size of the enemy.
HAMISH: No.
They-- they consume so much of our energy to-- to make sure we
didn't get put out by those things.
It was amazing to watch because it
was, like, no one could withstand the relentlessness--
TAMIKA: Yeah.
--of the flies.
It didn't matter if you yelled at them,
didn't matter if you're angry, didn't
matter if they were in smoke.
They just kept coming.
I was covered up all the way to my eyeballs,
and they just quite simply stung me on my eyeballs.
[laughter]
So the sandflies, big issue for everybody, but for one
of our participants, there was an issue that would not
have occurred to most of the people here, myself included,
until I saw it play out.
Let's take a look.
I've been bleeding for almost 30 days.
And, ugh, as a woman in the bush, that's hard core.
That has exhausted me.
There's been a lot of self-care.
It's every few hours.
Oh my god.
I'm washing myself.
I'm sore.
I'm bloody.
You know, it's just so freaking annoying.
I had to do laundry out here, for God's sake.
Little harder for us women out here at times.
We've just got to take that extra care.
Silly as that may look, you've got
to keep your health in check.
Oh, it's chilly on the nether regions.
Agh, acceptance of the body and its limitations.
Sorry, my family.
Sorry.
Tamika, well, it's so real, and it was obviously so
exhausting for you out there.
It was.
Now, seeing that footage that has not been seen before--
Oh, thank god.
Is that going to--
HAMISH: Yeah, this is on TV.
[laughter]
Was there a part of you that remembers filming that, then you
saw the episode and was like, OK, great.
I'm like, they'll cut that.
HAMISH: They had to make it then.
They'd cut that.
But it must have been exhausting.
What impact did it have, physically and psychologically?
Both, equal, I think.
And I've come from warm climates as well,
so that continued coverage in moist environments was tenfold.
And so hence the drying because--
There's no towels.
TAMIKA: --I was sore.
Yeah.
TAMIKA: You know, and as a woman,
when you're bleeding out there, you're OK.
You expect it in life.
We've-- we've come to know what that feeling is like.
And you do it for maybe seven days, 10
if you're hardcore into it.
And yet to go that long, I was just
hating it and hating myself.
And I'm like, what?
And it took me a long time to just settle down and go,
this is my journey, and I can either tap out and whinge
my whole life or I can just get on with it.
So yeah, it was annoying, to be honest, yeah.
I know.
So even just from my household but also
from the-- the viewership at large, people really,
really connected with, you know, what you were going through.
You can see some of the tweets here.
One of the questions, though, was
like, what are the actual rules on items that you're allowed
to take?
And I'm interested, too.
What are the rules?
You can-- you have a chat with the doctor before you go
on the show about what sort of methods you want to practice
while you're out there.
And I, too, received a lot of messages
about why didn't I just go on the pill.
But I haven't been on the pill for, like, 30 years,
and I don't want to change my body just for that purpose.
So I chose just to choose my natural patterns of pads
or free bleeding.
But out there, it's cold.
And when blood comes out, it's really freaking cold.
So it was pads.
And when I ran out of pads or I couldn't get up
through the night, I had a hanging in my shelter
that was different courses of-- of moss.
So it was, like, grade 1, 2, and 3, for whatever I needed.
So--
Wow.
And it was really soothing in comparison to the cotton pads.
Is that something you researched beforehand,
or you improvised it later after--
No, I found it out on "Alone."
I was like-- because I was wiping other areas, I'm like,
well, that actually feels pretty nice, so--
My god.
TAMIKA: --I'll just whack that there as well.
Incredible effort.
I just love that you talked about it
and that you used the word blood rather than all the other words
that are made up. - It's an everyday--
Yeah.
--thing, and I think it just doesn't--
yeah, it's just not normalized enough in our society, so.
Yeah, I agree.
I agree with that, too.
I agree with that.
It was beautifully done, Tamika.
Thank you, mate.
All right, it's time to talk about one
of everyone's favorite things, bushcraft.
Right now, we're in for a treat.
There is a bunch of stuff that didn't
make the episodes, never-before-seen MacGyver level
bushcraft.
Please enjoy.
I've sort of set myself some goals of things
that I want to achieve during the course of the day.
They're really good little morale boosters.
I've got a concept of what I want to build,
just basically a little bushcrafter's chair, two post
coming in from the front, meeting at the back.
And then you have two coming up the side, meeting at the top,
with my back against there.
It's a plan.
I have started stripping some flax because I want to make,
like, a bulbous canister with a little lid
to put the fish fillets in once they're dry.
I'm just going to have a look.
If I can turn a reed into a bit of a needle.
Oh, yeah.
And then I can just poke that through, and we're away.
So I'm a bit paranoid about spilling my soup in the fire.
So I'm just going to make up a quick sizzle for holding
the pot, which will sit like this on a stick,
and then you sort of swing it out, and then over the fire.
There we go, woo.
What I want to do is tie this onto my hook and make a lure.
There's this prickly stuff, but it's real bendy.
Now, my hope is that it's bendy and strong enough
that I can make a perfect hoop.
Then I've got a perfect fish net shape.
Step one, step two of net-making.
A knitting needle is basically like a little--
a little tool that makes tying a net easier.
So you basically use this as you wind up all your thread,
and you use that as a needle as you weave.
Tying a net, if you haven't ever tied a net,
it's a very simple sheet bend knot.
Once you get started, it's really simple.
It's just repetitive.
Oh, there you go.
You won't find that in the IKEA Christmas catalog,
I can tell you.
Dun-dow, there's the finished product.
I'm pretty happy with it.
That should work.
Well, I hope it works anyways.
Let's test it.
Ugh.
Ooh, it's starting to look like a fishing net.
Actually, quite good.
Hopefully, it will hold a fish.
So good.
So many awesome things built.
Good job.
[laughs] Well done.
Leanne, love seeing you use the pom-pom as a fishing lure.
Was that the plan going in?
Were you like, I could repurpose this pom-pom?
The pom-pom, it kept getting caught on branches and things.
Like, whenever you go for a walk, my beanie would fall off.
And I'd-- like, I love that beanie, but I thought,
that's got to go.
It's your time, pom-pom.
The pom-poms got to go.
It's time for you to get--
And I can't use it.
HAMISH: It's done for the greater good.
Exactly.
You know, if you can't get any worms or anything,
then yeah, just repurpose what you have.
Krzysztof, you made quite a lot of rope.
It was very impressive to watch.
Did you do anything with the rope, though?
Did you--
Oh, yeah.
I think you can actually see in some of the shots on my shelter,
there's lashings that are done with all the rope
that I was making.
Made any rope since the show?
Have not had the opportunity as yet.
HAMISH: You can now buy rope.
Huzzah.
[laughter]
HAMISH: Well, speaking of ingenuity, Rick,
can we talk boots?
Yes, let's talk boots.
OK, look, one of the big storylines from the series
this year was Rick's broken boots.
I think it's one of the things I love so much
about the show, where you're like, if someone said you will
be so deeply invested in, like, 10 minutes of watching
a man essentially be a cobbler in the bush, I'd say,
I don't think that sounds like a TV show.
But on this, it really is like.
Why didn't you get new boots before the show?
RICK: Those boots are like, they've done Kokotas,
they've done South Coast track of Tassie.
But once they're so worn in, it's
like, I've got an option here.
I'll go and buy another pair of $400 boots
with not a lot of time to wear them in,
or I get them professionally resold.
So I'd been-- I had that done six months before.
HAMISH: Yup.
I'd certainly checked all the seams and beeswax into them,
double check before I left.
And I was 100% confident that they would hold up.
There was no doubt.
We could just clearly see it was just horrible luck.
RICK: That's right, yeah.
And did the hose-- did the melted hose work?
RICK: It did surprisingly well, mixed in with the--
with the charcoal.
Not necessarily waterproof, but they held together,
and they were comfortable to wear.
Well, Rick, we have something for you.
On behalf of everyone watching, I'm
going to do something that I know a lot of people
would have loved to have seen happen in situ.
Just using a bit of my bush skills here,
I'm going to forage.
Um, oh my god, what's this?
[laughter]
Here you go.
[applause]
Wish-- wish we could have done it for you out there.
Thank you.
Oh, no, yeah, that's-- that's awesome.
Super appreciated.
It is time to talk about the one thing
that nobody he had any control over.
It's the weather.
Let's see what our participants had to deal with.
[wind whistling and hurling]
Whatever the storm got to do, bring it.
[wind whistling]
Winds are shaking everything around.
[WIND WHISTLING, THUNDER ROLLING]
Oh my god.
Here you go.
Look at that.
It's raining ice.
I'm not sure if I was dreaming,
but I think there was a little Earth tremor.
Wasn't big, but it was enough.
I felt almost-- felt a little bit seasick.
[thunder rolling]
There's something like 150 to 200 earthquakes,
significant earthquakes in New Zealand every year.
The ground definitely shook just before.
[wind whistling]
I just want this storm over.
[thunder rolling]
Right, first things first.
Tamika and Suzan, you guys were talking about earthquakes.
Fun fact, we've talked to the seismologists
while everyone was out there filming.
There were 156 earthquakes in the area, all minor.
But you guys did feel the ground shake.
There were two significant tremors.
And did anyone else feel the ground shake
while they were out there?
Yeah.
HAMISH: Chace, you could feel it?
And there was a rock slide across from where I was.
I was on the--
Yeah.
--by the lake and then across over in the other mountain,
it came down.
It was right in front of me.
I was like, oh.
HAMISH: Ooh, that's-- yeah, that's--
Yeah.
That's got to be a difficult thing to watch when you're--
I mean, you had the tarp to protect you, but apart
from that--
[laughter]
I mean, you knew it was going to be wet, obviously.
Like, you know that the weather's
going to play a factor.
But show of hands, for who was it more of a surprise than
even what you were expecting.
I didn't think it would be quite--
I don't know, in the early days, it was quite humid some days,
humid and cold.
I know that sounds weird, but I've never experienced that.
If you're in--
I think of humid, and I think like Darwin and the tropics.
So wet air, but--
Wet air but--
HAMISH: --freezing.
--but freezing, yeah.
Yeah, I think it's the fact that just nothing will dry.
Yeah.
And the idea of washing your clothes.
So I can only imagine, Tamika, you
were needing to wash more than most,
but it's like, I prefer to have it probably dirty
and on than be washed and wet and not really
being able to use it.
So the dampness was--
It's just still is wet two, three days later, most cases.
I think I washed my undies once because of that
and then put them in my sleeping bag,
and they dried out over, like, five days in my sleeping bag.
Five days?
SUZAN: Yeah.
The body heat is what it took.
Yeah.
I think my sleeping bag was reserved for mosses and things
for tinder.
But yeah, it was full of tinder and stuff for keeping that dry.
So is that--
this is just me, you know, again, as a city boy.
Is that a-- like, is that a common trick to put
a lot of stuff in your sleeping bag to dry?
It's probably common for everybody.
I had a pillow-- a pillow of tinder that I just crammed full.
Every night, I made sure it was full,
and that was my pillow and my warmth, dried that for the fires
to come.
Yeah, so that's-- really, that's the only heating
you've got, I suppose, is just your body heat in the sleeping
bag.
Krzysztof, did the weather ever get you down?
Not really.
Like, I love the sound of rain on-- on your roof.
It actually helps me sleep.
I prefer some sort of gray noise or something.
And there was a few times towards the end where
I was really struggling to sleep,
and I'd have like a patch of rain.
Like, I'd be like, thank God it's raining.
I'm going to actually get some sleep tonight.
Wow.
And then the rain would stop, and I'd wake up
and say, OK, here we are again.
Wow, it's interesting.
It comes back to that idea of just,
you know-- you know, you can turn what perhaps other people
are not loving, which is the rain,
into something that you're enjoying.
Mm.
So something that I think might have been tougher
than, you know, perhaps a few people were expecting
was just the sheer loneliness of being alone, missing home.
It was a big deal for everyone.
But here is a little unseen moment from Tamika
that I think captures how everyone
would have felt at some point.
Take a look.
I miss the girls.
I miss Bill.
I miss them.
I love them.
But at the moment, I'm just jealous of them.
Imagine sitting by the shore, having an evening fish,
drinking my piña colada.
No, I don't drink piña coladas.
Drinking a Chai, oh my god, there you go.
Ooh.
Why would you cry over joy?
[chuckles]
Ah, the ritual.
OK, so I miss my kids.
[laughs] Bill doesn't drink Chai, but the girls do.
Oh, so it's not the Chai I miss.
It's the connection you miss.
[chuckles]
Tamika, that was actually on day three.
Oh, no, God help me.
Which I think it's amazing that,
again, you were dealing with that, obviously, the whole time.
Just one little thing opens up to bigger realizations,
and you just think, ah, it's not the Chai.
And then all of a sudden you let your mind go deeper,
and it just bubbles out.
Well, it does for me, so.
How often during the day is your mind
being pulled back home?
Is it always a constant specter that's there?
Hmm.
Food is.
Food.
TAMIKA: Yeah.
Food.
Food is-- food is the memory.
SUZAN: Food is overwhelming.
Pizza.
Cheesy sandwiches.
Vegemite.
Yeah.
I think just those insignificant little exchanges that you have
through the day as well.
Like you mentioned, getting a Chai and the ritual of going
for a cup of coffee.
You're not necessarily sitting down to chat with someone,
but even a cashier saying to you, morning,
what can I get for you?
That simple human interaction that you get, you really--
I really notice those, anyway.
Leanne, you know, missing home was a huge part of it for you.
Did you expect it going--
I mean, I know everyone expects to be lonely,
but were you expecting to feel it the way you did?
No.
HAMISH: No?
No.
I thought I'd go out.
Like, when you're with family all the time and you're a mom,
you kind of want a break because you never get a break.
There's always somebody wanting something from you.
And I thought that would be my thing for me, and I'd love it,
and I wouldn't think about home so much, you know.
But it was my daughter, like, she was only three.
Like, what are you doing?
Like, do you really need to be here, doing this right now?
Worth pointing out, you did double the time on the show
that your partner Rob spent, so that is a huge win for you.
Have you made that known to him?
[laughter]
Yeah, you know, we have a little laugh about it,
of course.
Do you say to him, you don't really know what it's
like to be out of the house?
[laughter]
I was out there for twice as long as you.
Yeah, exactly.
[laughs]
I mean, there was actually almost
a three week gap between the fifth person
to go home and the sixth.
So like, quite distinctly, two-- two halves.
I mean, I'd say, Susan, what was it for you that mentally
was able to get you there?
Because you had zero protein--
That's right.
--for the whole time.
Yeah.
I did a lot of foraging.
I'm post-menopausal.
I put on 15 kilos.
I conserved energy.
I minimized my energy expenditure wherever I could.
That was my main strategy.
You know, not having a fire, only having a fire once a week
so I didn't have to collect the wood using my-- my--
So you only had a fire once a week?
That's right, yeah.
So my first shelter was my clothing and my sleeping bag,
and that kept me warm.
Going into hibernation, going to bed at 5 o'clock at night,
getting up at 10 o'clock in the morning.
HAMISH: Wow.
Spending hours in my mind, in my sleeping bag, constructing
a story, like not using my hands to entertain myself,
but my mind to entertain myself.
And then, you know, I felt John there.
He was palpable.
Like, he was thinking to me every hour of every day,
and I could feel him.
It was a lot of things.
The main thing is probably the psychology.
I mean, it's a huge credit to you.
Like, it's one thing to say, I'm going to hibernate
my way through two months as a human being,
a species not known for its hibernation,
but it's another thing to be able to mentally--
to do it.
Pretty phenomenal to watch.
Thank you.
Chace, you had also--
you had a huge pull.
It was unknown to the show, and you made that clear.
You were like, ah, you know, I haven't talked about this,
but this is what's going on in my life,
that your partner was pregnant.
We actually do have a little look at your final hours
here as you grapple with that in the wild.
I got a bit of a confession.
Right before I got on this show--
right before I got on the show, I
found out I was going to be a father for the first time.
Day one, when I got out here, she was eight weeks.
Like, 9 and 1/2 weeks tomorrow.
And a couple days after, you can find out
whether it's a boy or a girl.
They're all big moments that I'm not there for.
I'd be absolutely kidding myself if that wasn't wreaking havoc
on my mind this whole time.
Home is calling, and it's a hard call to ignore.
That was-- it was a surprise to me, obviously,
before going on the show, finding out right before we
left.
And things started changing, I suppose,
internally before I really realized.
And going out there, I thought to myself,
I was really trying to enjoy myself to justify staying there
because I knew how much--
how much pain was going on at home, being sick every day.
So I was alone, but she was also alone.
We have a picture of your child here.
This is what was-- this is what was pulling you home.
I understand that baby doesn't look like that anymore.
How's everything?
Happy, healthy?
Fab.
HAMISH: Great.
Yeah.
HAMISH: Great.
Loving it?
Yeah, absolutely loving it.
Have there ever been moments where you look back
and go, OK, now I would have done it differently, or zero--
zero regrets?
No, I'm very happy with the way that all went.
No regrets at all.
I mean, I'll be honest, I've got two kids who are, like,
older.
They're 10 and 6.
And as a dad myself, I was watching, going, I don't know,
mate.
I don't know if you'll ever get two months off again.
I'd stay for a bit longer.
[laughter]
This is not the kind that you can do when they're two.
But I mean, very, very different circumstance for yourself
as you're sitting there.
And, you know, I'm glad.
I'm glad that as you went home, it felt--
it felt like the right thing.
Well done, mate.
Beautiful.
Not everyone would know this but, as well
as being incredible survivalists,
the people here tonight are also incredible musicians.
Please enjoy.
(RAPPING) I want to be in the land of Vegemite sandwiches
I want to be in the land of Vegemite sandwiches
Give me the land of Vegemite sandwiches
And let me eat a Vegemite sandwich!
[laughs]
(SINGING) Happiness is a ripe eggplant
Fresh basil and a good dog
Great lyrics.
[laughter]
Really, I mean eggplant, and fresh basil,
and a good dog, that's powerful stuff.
Like, that's an album.
That was an old mantra from when I lived alone and built
my house and things were pretty tough.
So it was just that framing of, you know--
HAMISH: Love it. - Yeah.
Love it.
Did anyone have trouble going back then into the real world?
Was there a fast--
was it too much too soon for anyone?
Or was it--
My head was definitely still there for weeks later,
waking up in the middle of the night
and trying to justify that you're not
in under your shelter.
And you've got your wife laying next to you,
and you're just like, Rick, you're not there anymore.
But that was weeks and weeks.
Wow.
RICK: Yeah.
Yeah, wow.
Getting into the airport--
Getting home strange?
Yeah, all the people around me, ooph,
there was a bit of overload.
It must have been strange just to look at, like, a candy bar
and go, I can't believe you're right there, like, I can--
I can just have you.
Or clicking on an electric jug.
[pop]
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
It seems that that's one of the rewards of going
on the show, is to have everything taken away,
that it just-- when it comes back,
it feels like an amazing thing.
Or to realize that don't need that stuff as well--
Yeah, right.
--and that you might choose to live even more simply.
Is there something like that that happened for you, Tamika?
Like--
For sure, yeah.
So I'm not even living in a home anymore.
I'm just in my truck.
And I'm just realizing I need so much less than what I thought
I did to be happy.
So, yeah.
Chace, some solid nods from you?
Yeah, trying to move out of the city.
Yeah, get downsize a lot of that sort of life,
you know, to something a bit more simpler, and for the kids
as well.
Totally.
Well, before we completely put a full stop on it,
there is something that--
that I know everyone was fascinated by.
The elephant in the room or should
I say the deer in the room, or should I
say the lack of deer in the room.
I mean, in New Zealand, they're regarded as an invasive species,
but in real life, they were an evasive species because they
were extremely hard to find.
Is this--
If you can see the monitors, is this about what you are hoping?
Oh, we wish.
We wish.
Tssst, break away.
That happened.
That happened--
That happened?
--right at the start.
Like, I had a deer trip over my guy rope of my first shelter.
You saw the deer?
On first night, I could hear it coming.
I was in my sleeping bag, my bow and arrow is right there.
But in New Zealand, laws are you can't use a projectile weapon
at night time.
So I couldn't even get out there.
And then the third night, it happened again.
And then after that, they were onto--
there's a Homo sapien here.
Let's get out of here.
Let's disappear up into the hills.
And they were gone.
You could hear them reading the hunting rules, laughing.
SUZAN: They were gone.
[laughter]
I don't want to rub it in, but there were so many neelys.
But there was--
That's why they call it hunting and not catching.
That's it.
It was a lot, a lot of stalking.
I mean, there were-- there were a lot of close calls,
but there was an actual.
Like, Jason, you saw the deer, and you were able to call it,
and it called back.
For that'll bring something, but it hasn't.
And then--
HAMISH: It looks like a deer track to me.
--I saw this trout in the water, and I was like, oh,
look at that, he's right there.
[mimics barking]
[growling]
Can you give us the call?
[laughter]
Come on.
We want to hear it again.
It was really--
[mimics barking] It just sounds like a bark.
It's-- yeah, it's a weird noise.
I just kind of heard, you know, gravel movement,
and he was on the beach.
And I think he'd seen me before.
I saw him, and he kind of took off back up into the--
into the thick of it.
And, yeah, as he was running away, he--
he sort of made that noise and--
It called back as it was running away?
He did it when he was going away.
And then that's why I did it, and then he called back.
So it was like a see you later.
So I was-- yeah, kind of, yea.
So, yeah, it was frustrating.
But yeah, that was the only time I saw him or heard him.
One of the things that--
I mean, this might be true for everyone,
but certainly for the footage that
made the show, like the unluckiness,
the close calls that you had, it was breaking my heart
watching it.
The bounce of the lid of the mousetrap, I mean, brutal.
Hold on.
It's just a mouse.
Trigger, trigger, trigger.
Oh, that is just freaking awful.
[sighs]
I probably could have made the trap better,
could have probably made a locking mechanism or something
like that.
A mouse can probably squeeze through a 5-mil gap.
Like, the size of their skull, that's
what they can scroll through.
So it's a little bit angled because I
hope the weight of the lid will stop it.
But, you know--
Mate, I'm sure with getting it out, too, it could be very
tricky if it was in there and trying to get it out without--
I wouldn't.
Probably just checking it till it died.
Yeah.
A bit more-- that would be a bit more brutal, but yeah.
Yeah, but that was the plan, right?
And if you win, you get a mouse,
which is a very small prize.
So totally understand.
Do you want to talk about the eels?
Twice as many eels hooked than actual fish.
Uh, I think it's a big eel.
Silly bugger, it's a shame we can't eat them.
A lot of food right there.
HAMISH: I mean, first caught, 13, eels released, 27.
It must have been so frustrating.
Krzysztof, I mean, I think in the series,
you had a couple in a row.
Is it hard to remain positive when that keeps happening?
I got a little bit frustrated, but catching something
is better than not catching anything at all.
And it's something that changes the day up a little bit, so.
The excitement to meet an eel for a while, it helps you--
And if-- if I get my hook back at the end of it, even better.
let's go back to the episode that we've all just seen,
the finale.
As soon as Suzan had tapped, Erin, your partner,
was contacted, but the medical team pulled you out immediately.
They couldn't wait for Erin to arrive before extracting you.
Krzysztof, was she disappointed not to be able to get there?
Because I understand she was in the middle of something
also important because she has her own life.
Yeah, she was incredibly disappointed
that she couldn't be there.
But after I found out where she was, if she would have rocked
up, I would have been a little bit pissed off.
What was she-- what was she doing?
So she's studying Astra Space.
And at the time, she was doing a planning project for a return
sample mission to Mars.
So not only was it, like, a world first
that there wasn't a loved one there,
could have almost been a world first
that when the loved one was contacted, they went, I'm busy.
[laughter]
Tell him to stay another week.
HAMISH: Yeah.
Yeah, tell him congrats.
I'll catch up with him when I'm-- when I'm done work.
Wow, OK, that's pretty awesome.
Krzysztof, we saw the moment that--
that you guys were reunited.
Here and stuff, so-- what the [bleep]?
[laughs] Aw.
And I apologize for the profanity.
HAMISH: No, I thought it was-- that was a time that was exactly
what you should say when suddenly your girlfriend sitting
next to you.
But what we didn't see was that, Krzysztof,
you had the opportunity to then take Erin back to where you'd
been living for those 64 days.
And that's also pretty special.
That's never happened before on any of the "Alones,"
where you actually can go back, fed,
slightly recovered and see it with-- with fresh eyes,
not the eyes of someone that's in shock.
So let's take a little look.
[nature music]
ERIN: Oh, the water is so clear.
KRZYSZTOF: Yeah.
Yeah, it is.
This is gorgeous, but also terrifying.
I couldn't-- [laughs]
Thank you, baby.
Welcome to my land.
Oh my gosh.
This is my spinning wheel.
Oh my gosh!
[chuckles]
And I'd sort of sit over here all the time.
Yeah.
And then it was just, literally,
you just tie a little piece on, and then as you spin,
this thing would tighten and pull tight.
That is so cool.
Camp's up through here.
This is so beautiful.
KRZYSZTOF: I've built this little sculpture.
This is so cool!
This one's me, and this one's you.
[laughs] I love it.
And this-- oh my god, Fort Kick Ass.
Come inside Fort Kick Ass.
Yes.
This is the bed I built. Yeah, it's--
This is pretty good.
Yeah, it's solid.
This was the stuff that I was using to make rope.
Wow.
Pull on it.
Gee, that is awesome.
So, yeah, babe, that's my home sweet home for the last 64 days.
What do you think?
This is amazing, baby.
Well done.
I'm so proud of you.
Aw, it feels--
It does feel like--
[applause]
Oh, congratulations.
I am interested to know, what did Erin think of the statue
that you built of her?
And what was the thinking behind that?
So I was having a day where I was feeling a little bit lonely
and homesick, and I thought I'm going to need something to just,
you know, similar to the-- your rocks as well.
I decided to build this sculpture, and it was--
this one's going to be Erin, this one's going to be me.
And I'll put Erin up a little bit higher because I see her
as my queen.
She's just absolutely amazing.
I look up to her.
She is my world.
And even though we're not together at the moment,
I know that we will be soon.
Well, congratulations again, mate, for making it all the way.
As a little bit of a treat, the show has organized something.
Now, we won't tell customs we did this because you're not
really meant to bring wood back from overseas.
But one second.
We have got-- you've got the Fort--
you've got your Fort Kick Ass sign.
It's awesome.
Here you go.
That is--
HAMISH: That is--
CONTESTANT: Yay.
[applause]
I love-- I mean, not too many other shows where it's not
a giant check.
It's a piece of wood.
[laughter]
Like, piece of wood.
Oh, it's better than a giant check.
Good stuff.
Thanks.
Total pleasure.
How awesome.
Just kidding.
Obviously, customs is watching.
We fumigated it, et cetera, et cetera.
But well done.
Well done, mate.
And well done to everyone.
Like, thank you.
On behalf of the viewers, I'm sure people sitting at home
and watching this online, and, you know,
I get to be their voice as someone that
loved watching the series.
Thanks to everyone for the way you put
yourselves out there, how honest it was,
the way you conducted yourself.
It was awesome.
Thank you for being part of it.
That is the end of "Alone Australia Season 2--
The Reunion."
It has been a massive pleasure.
Have a great one.
Thanks, everybody.
[theme music]