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Tara Ward talks to Shay Williamson, the first New Zealander to compete on the most real reality show of our screens.
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A new season of Alone – the global survival TV series that takes a group of intrepid individuals and lets them bear the desert – arrived on TVNZ+ this week and this season there is a connection from New Zealand. Shay Williamson, a Whakatane skunk hunter, is Aotearo’s first competitor to appear in the international TV franchise. He is one of the 10 competitors (the others are the Australians) who compete to survive more time in a cold, moist winter from Tasmania, hoping to earn $ 250,000.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyvgwn-6k_u
Surviving alone in Australia is not easy. It is a relentless test of resilience and resistance, as each participant is removed individually in the western Tasmania forest and goes out to build their own shelter, take their own food and survive the extreme conditions as long as possible. As a longtime fan of the show, Williamson had previously applied to compete in the US version, believing in the skills he took during years of hunting and capture It would be perfect for a long passage in the desert. When Australia alone appeared, he took the chance to get involved.
For Williamson, Bush feels at home, and he is not phased by the program’s isolation and loneliness. “I am a very socially strange person. I go to the city and feel stressed. I hate walking through the crowd,” he explains in the first episode of the show.
Williamson prepared for the show, putting an extra 25 kg weight, which he expected to support him if he could not find food. “I am very thin normally and was super busy working, leading to it,” he told Spinoff. “So it was just eating pies and just trying to put weight as soon as possible.” And while some participants alone last a few hours of modern comforts, Williamson has established the high target of staying in Tasmania for 300 surprising days. “I figured that if I had a big goal, I wouldn’t be counting the days. I would be out there trying to live.”
There is no doubt that Williamson knows what he is doing alone. In the first two episodes of the new season, we see it build an ingenious pulley system to arrest animals and see its impressive understanding of how animals behave in nature. But even with his extensive experience and knowledge, Williamson initially fought to find food. The program trailer shows him preparing a fried worms banquet – a cooking choice that can make some of the spectators’ stomachs become, but Williamson considers Wriggly creatures to be a source of underestimated food.
“They are 60% protein and 14% fat and have many good things,” he says. “You need to be willing to eat what is available, because you just don’t know what it will be there. You will not necessarily be able to get a good steak.”
Williamson took every second drama related to worms on the camera, as Australia participants alone are responsible for shooting every moment of the day. He reveals that 75 kilograms of camera equipment was one of his biggest challenges, especially during his continuous search for food. “If you are trying to sneak into an animal, you have three cameras that need to move and need to talk to them while you do it. It has done everything twice as hard.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdi-w8pvgza
When the days passed and the isolation went into action, Williamson found himself talking to the camera like a real person. He was also surprised at how cold winter was in Tasmania and did not expect to miss his young family as much as he. “I spent months in the bush alone before, alone, but never since I had a family. That was definitely the hardest part, being away from children.”
And although we have not yet known if Williamson has achieved his goal of staying in the Tasmania desert for 300 arduous days, he admits that his time in the series has provided many opportunities to reflect on his life. He also made him “obsessed” with food, describing all meals in his eventual return to Aotearoa as “a new experience.” Only Australia promises to be an unpredictable ride, and Williamson admits that his experience has changed him in many unexpected ways.
“I definitely have a greater appreciation for everyday things, just being close to the family – and having food to eat all the time.”
Watch alone in Australia here.
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