Noosa hinterland resident Tamika Simpson called it quits on the second season of survival series Alone Australia after 53 days.
Tamika, 51, decided to tap out in episode nine on Wednesday night when faced with the choice of whether or not to kill a goose to eat or stay on for a chance at the $250,000 prize.
She had been doing well in the wild for the first month, catching trout from a fishing spot she had nick-named “the ledge” but she had not been able to pull a fish for 22 days and felt “crap”.
Watching three geese on a lake on day 52, the former Australian champion bow-hunter put an arrow in her bow, then lay it on the ground.
“What do I do? Do I take one and stay a couple of days, then do I start taking more and more, staying longer, doing something I don’t want to do?” she mused, before taking a bird squawk as a sign.
“Yes, there you go. I don’t want to do it. Nope. I don’t want to kill it. I’m not here just to kill to stay longer.”
As she departed the show, she said she was happy that she had done her best, but she had reached a point where it was no longer safe for her and she did not want to kill anymore.
Tamika, who lives off-grid near Pomona, was one of 10 people dropped into wild terrain in Te Waipounamu, in the south-west of New Zealand’s South Island, last winter for the second series of the test of survival.
Her departure left wilderness guide Susan, aquaculturalist Krzysztof, and personal trainer and subsistence hunger Andreas.
Responding to questions through SBS, Tamika did not give away the result of the final episode, which will screen on 29 May, but said it had been a great experience.
“I’ve called it the best holiday and free therapy session ever, but I know it’s not everybody’s cup of tea,” she said.
“I have nothing but gratitude and happiness about the whole experience.”
She said the prizemoney was incentive but she went on the show for the experience.
“Initially I wanted to go on Alone Australia to test myself in a wild environment and inspire others to follow their dreams,” she said.
“It was an opportunity that not many people are given, and I embraced it fully”
Tamika described her life experience as her best asset going into the show.
She has been an Australian bowhunting champion, police officer, scuba diving instructor, disability worker, national parks ranger, flyfishing rod maker, farmer and tattooist, and has spent more than 20 years practising permaculture and herbal medicine.
Known around Pomona and Cooran through Gypsy Green, a vegan food van, Tamika had not eaten meat for five years but said she knew she would have to do so to survive on the show.
She said it felt like every cell in her body came alive when she ate a trout she caught on the show and her best moment was when the sun popped over a snow-capped mountain as it took the bait.
“The relief and satisfaction were mind-blowing. It was also the first animal I had killed in over 12 years so (a) huge adrenalin rush,” she said.
“That’s the moment when I felt all things were possible. All we need is a bit of hope to keep going.”
Tamika said the most difficult part of participating in the series was the mental pressure.
“The pressure I placed upon myself and the pressure or feelings that came along with the insight of what it is to be alone with yourself,” she said.
“The layers of society’s conditions, past trauma or history, just everyday living is removed and along with that a new space is created to bring up emotions and I certainly did some digging.”
She said she missed her family during the series but the space between them had been good for personal growth on all parts.
She also missed creature comforts such as a soft bed, toothbrush and a chair to weave from by the fire.
However, she has not settled since she returned and said Alone Australia had shown her how much peace she found in wilder places.
“I packed my truck, hit the road and followed my heart to the waters and the deserts,” she said.
“I’ve been chasing waterfalls, cooking with traditional methods and meeting the most interesting of people.
“Life for me is about opening to the new and inviting change. An Elder once told me everything we need lies within.”
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