Chrissy Zaremba was possibly the most loveable contestant on this year’s season of Australian Survivor: Blood vs Water, but one of her best traits was that she knew absolutely nothing about the show.
It’s rare to meet a castaway who has no idea what they’re doing, but it does make for great television. The 42-year-old signed up to compete alongside her brother-in-law Croc, an ex-NRL player.
Hailing from the Sunshine Coast, the “full-time mummy, part-time teacher” said she was excited to be “getting a break from [her] kids” by competing on Australian Survivor. That should have been the first sign of her not knowing what the show actually entails.
Surprisingly, Chrissy made it quite far into the competition and caused a bit of a stir along the way as well.
She flipped on her alliance with Josh which resulted in him feeling furious, even though he voted for her to be eliminated.
“Josh was livid, but again, my social game had got me there and then a couple of days out I thought ‘oh, I should do something’ and then Mark really sealed the deal and then it came time to flip and it made me go, ‘okay, they may be my family out here but I’ve got my family at home that I need to do it for, so I need to take him out’,” she told The Latch.
While the two have patched things up since then, his reaction still took Chrissy by surprise. “Obviously, we’ve spoken since then, but I didn’t think it was going to be that intense, I thought it might’ve been like, ‘all right, well we’ve gotta go for someone’, so that was a little bit shocking, but it’s all good. It’s a game, you know, sorry! Sorry, everyone!”
Appearing on a television show certainly has its perks, but there are also a lot of drawbacks, such as the extreme amount of hate that comes the participant’s way. For Chrissy, it was hard to swallow.
“I’m shocked because people are being so nice and they liked my game, but there are haters. You know, that goat word, how embarrassing, I thought it meant greatest of all time, and then I found out that in Survivor, ‘goat’ means you were shit and didn’t do anything, I was so embarrassed! So that was a bit of knowledge!”
And if you’re hoping to see her again soon then don’t hold your breath, because she’s ready for a well-deserved break.
“No. If they asked me tomorrow, absolutely not, but I’m never gonna say never, it was the best experience of my life. I met some amazing people, I did some really cool stuff, I’ve loved what Australia got to see and I’m still smiling!”
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