Last week, “Race to Survive: New Zealand” introduced nine pairs of teams who had yet to complete the first race, and viewers had yet to see which team would be the first to be eliminated.  Teams had to choose between staying on course, or detouring off the path to obtain vital nourishment.

The overall race, broken-down into smaller races total 40 days and150 miles that nine teams of two are competing for the grand prize of $500,000.

Oliver and Corry, who are river guides, did some major strategizing after their raft capsized to maintain their lead by splitting up to have Oliver remain in the raft paddling in water just deep enough, while Corry  walked along the shore navigating the stream.  

The rules of this race was that they must finish with their raft, and must touch the “end crate” once they arrived at it.

Father and Son-in-law team Ryan and Bronsen played it smart by forgoing the food cache and stayed in their second spot.  

Team mates who are exes Paulina and Creighton were at odds on whether or not to stop for a food ration over proceeding in the race in order to get to the end crate for a more valuable reward.  Creighton was not in agreement with Paulina’s desire to keep forging ahead without stopping.

Coree and Jeff opted to get the food cache while other teams chose to skip it.  Steffen and Mikhail were one of those teams, and they hadn’t eaten in a day and a half. 

Pictured: (l-r) Steffen Jean-Pierre, Mikhail Martin — Photo by: Tim Williams/USA Network

Emilio, the oldest in the race, and his team mate Heather were in last place, and continued arguing along the way.   In the meantime, three teams were 16 miles ahead of them.
River guides Oliver and Corry were the first team to arrive at the end crate and had first choice of the rewards.

These rewards were:  a fishing kit, two pounds of bacon, two hammocks, and a fire kit.  Each team could take only one of these items.  Like anyone would be, Oliver and Corry were torn between the fishing kit and the two pounds of bacon.

Which award do you think they grabbed?  Bacon?? No, it was the fishing kit!  However, this only helps if they know how to fish. Ryan and Bronsen, who were the second team to arrive at the food crate, grabbed the bacon and made the other teams super jealous.

Ryan said the bacon made all the river rafting hardships well worth it.  The third team, Ethan and Tyrie, to arrive at the crate went for the two hammocks. 

Race-or-Famine!

The race day ended before the rest of the teams made it to the end crate and thus, they set up “survival camps” for the night portion and continued the race the next day.  Luckily Creighton and Paulina, who skipped the food cache earlier, scored some goose eggs along the way before setting up camp. 

Pictured: (l-r) Paulina Pena, Creighton Baird — Photo by: Daniel Allen/USA Network

The next day Creighton and Paulina made their way to the end crate in fourth place and got the last and final reward which was a fire kit, something that they already had.  During their interview, Paulina had looks that could KILL on Creighton as he stated that (even after finding the goose eggs) he still regretted not going for the food cache.

To make matters worse, Creighton had no game play at all when he gave up his strategy about feasting on the goose eggs to Corry and Oliver (who were struggling with catching fish with their poles) and Ethan and Tyrie who only had hammocks for their rewards.

Paulina was NOT a happy camper over it.  Those rivaling teams went off to harvest their own goose eggs!  Unfortunately, Creighton said he didn’t see it as a “strategy thing.”  Oh, was he badly mistaken!

The two teams who were at risk of being last, and elimination were the Brooklyn climbers Mikhail and Steffen and Emilio and Heather.

Pictured: (l-r) Emilio Navarro, Heather Sishco — Photo by: Tim Williams/USA Network

Two teams who powered through, skipping food caches, Kennedy and Nik, and  Mikhail and Steffen made it through to the end crate, and most likely lost some weight in the process, burning some 6000 calories per day!  

Nik, out of desperation for food, found a snack in bee eating after pulling the stingers out. He said they were sweet. 

After the other teams welcomed Mikhail and Steffen to the first end mark, they revealed that they had not eaten since the beginning of the race.  In this instance, it will be interesting to see if another team ends up offering the two men any of their own food in the next episode.

Coming in Last…

After roughing it really far behind and Emilio having to scale over the narrow gap between the rocks up and over rocks then falling down, setback after setback, they couldn’t catch up.  Emilio and Heather was the team coming in last and were left with not medallions to move them forward.

After Emilio’s devastation of seeing the inside empty crate, Heather looked on the bright side, saying,  “that’s okay.  We didn’t give up.” 

By the end of it, Emilio and Heather were just proud of themselves for making it to the end without injury or death.  The other teams said their goodbyes to Heather and Emilio, who got airlifted out of the race.

Next time, see what more desperation of not eating leads more racers to do for food as the teams continue the next leg in the race!

“Race to Survive: New Zealand” airs Mondays at 11 pm ET/PT on USA Network.