You're reading it here first.
I can bring you the VERY FIRST independent exit interview with Survivor SA Santa Carolina celebitant Hanna Grobler who was the first celebitant booted off the island earlier tonight after the tribes merged in a twisty-puzzle-challenged filled seventh episode.
The tribes merged, Proverb had to spend some alone time on the beach, they all got to rank each other in terms of strength and there was an intriguing skull challenge right after the end to decide whether Louw or Hanna gets to go home.
I spoke with Hanna Grobler to find out about the 30 second skull challenge and asked her about the surprising strength for a girl she displayed mentally and physically. She talks about who irritated her, who she bonded with, why she agreed to be in this reality show and ''not being the poppie that many people think''.
For my full interview with Hanna Grobler, click on READ MORE below!
What struck me right from the beginning of Survivor SA Santa Carolina was that you're much, much stronger than what I thought. I think people have this idea of you as ''Ooh, a blond girl'' and that's not at all who you seem to really be. Where do you get your strength from?
I exercise and train at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria where all the athletes like Caster Semenya train. I've been going there long before I did Survivor SA Santa Carolina. I believe it's important to exercise and that it's important for your physical and mental well-being and that it brings balance to your life. I exercised with a trainer who teaches you how to make your mind and body work together. At some stage your body is going to want to give in and rebel and then your head and your mind has to take over. I think that is exactly what happened, specifically in that water challenge we did.
How did you remain focused mentally especially given all the psychological games going on in a thing like Survivor SA and the mental challenges during the award and immunity challenges?
For me it was important to stay in the moment. If you think too far back or too far ahead it becomes too much. I prayed a lot before the time, I prayed a lot during my stay on the island and sometimes I went for long walks and spoke to the Lord. So I think it gave me a sense of calm and peace. A lot of people ask me what was the worst thing about the island experience and I really can't thing of anything that was really bad for me. I didn't cry once. I was actually very happy.
Did you get a sense during tribal council that you're going to be voted out next?
Yes. Okkert told me that the other tribe is going to vote for me to go. It was between me and Sade so I guessed that my time was running out. Directly after that mental challenge we did with the blocks I realized that I'm now a target because Kas won by one single block - but he was rated lower than me physically. So I immediately knew I'm now seen as a bigger threat. I mean, usually when the merge happens, people vote off the strongest players first and I feel honoured that I got voted off at the same time as when Hein got the boot in the previous Survivor SA.
How does it work, because if you're strong or stronger and there's challenges, you want to win, but you don't want to show you're strong enough to win because then you give the game away. Did you ever think you're not going to compete at your best?
No. I don't believe that anybody would not give their best in a challenge. And if they say they're not they're lying! It's human nature to always give your best in any challenge. I know for a fact that everyone gave their best. It's important. When you run a race in school you're not going to run slower on purpose. You just can't. You're going to run at your fastest. It's difficult. Survivor SA doesn't really work like in nature. You would think the weakest people would get voted off first and then the stronger ones - that's how it would work if this was a real survival Survivor. But here it's reversed. You can't hold back and you want immunity, so you have to give your best every time.
Then I want to ask you, who irritated you the most of all the contestants?
Look, I never really had a lot of time to get to know the members of the other tribe all that well. But I think right at the beginning when Craig and Kas had to choose the tribes, Craig came across funny-weird in the sense that he acted as if he was the leader. That irrirated all of us and that's why we voted him off first.
And who did you like the most and who was there who you maybe thought you could have become friends with in real life if it wasn't that you stuck on an island in a competitive game?
Definitely Sade. We became good friends. Gys and Okkert. Those three.
Viewers will recognize you from the drama show Getroud met Rugby that was on kykNET last year. I think you were so utterly convincing in that role that it was sho shocking to see you on TV now in Survivor SA Santa Carolina not acting but just as Hanna being Hanna. It was really such a departure to see you in this reality show and shocking for me. Why did you decide to do it?
They asked me but a while before they asked me to take part in Survivor SA I wrote in my diary - in which I write stuff all the time - that next I would really like to do something that's completely different from Getroud met Rugby - something in which people could see how and who I really am. And I believe that what I write in that diary comes true. My prayer was answered in and through Survivor SA because that is exactly what happened. I'm very grateful for that. It's a wonderful opportunity so that people can see who I really am and how I really am . . . that I'm not this poppie like many people think. I had this one funny incident on Doen met 'n Miljoen on kykNET where someone asked me for my e-mail address and then the one woman turned around and said, ''Don't be simple, Hanna can't write'' which was quite shocking to me.
But why Survivor SA Santa Carolina specifically because it's not anybody who would be able to do it. It's an extreme TV genre in terms of what it requires from the people in the show.
I was a bit scared just because you never know exactly what to expect really. You can also just prepare yourself to a point and then you have to wait and see what happens. In school I did Land Service which involves survival camps and where you do teamwork and leadership and I know nature and I'm used to it and there's obstacle courses which I'm crazy about so I was actually looking forward to it all.
What was the worst?
Obviously you're hungry, obviously you're tired, physically you slept badly. There wasn't anything that was extremely bad for me. When I think back and when people see me on Survivor SA Santa Carolina I was happy. I laughed and I was happy. What would have been bad for me if I stayed longer would have been the backstabbing that started because the game always start to get really intense from the merge. I'm thankful that I left before that starts, because it's completely against my personality and who I am and what I believe in. That would have been the worst for me, but it never got to that.
With the countdown of the 30 seconds in the episode that viewers just saw and in which you and Louw had the skull challenge, could you have done that differently?
I tried to count slower. I think that is exactly what Louw did too. It's absolutely preposterous that we were only out by one second from each other and that we both took far too long. I think he also counted slower. You can just give your best. What can I say? I mean . . . one second! Afterwards I had complete peace. I realized it was a fact that I was leaving. That same day, Kas and I differed with just one block - and then I would have had immunity. And with Louw it was one second. I had peace, it felt like the right time. Now, when I look back, I know that it was definitely the right time and viewers will still see what happens further one when the game gets really ugly.
If you have to tell readers who they should keep a look-out for. Who would it be?
I think at this point in the game it's the perceived weaker players. They're the most dangerous because the stronger ones are getting voted off first. It's those who are being underestimated who's going to surprise a lot of people.
Gys spoke a lot of Afrikaans and Darren Maule told me that it felt to him as if there was a stronger bond between the Afrikaans contestants because they shared Afrikaans as a language. Was that your feeling?
I think in life you get along with some people, and you don't get along with some people. Sade and I bonded instantly. We were pals before I became friends with Gys and Okkert. So I think it's definitely easier to talk to people who speak the same language but it's also about people's energy and what you like and what you find funny and fun and about what is important for you in life. For me it wasn't a language thing. I got along as well with the English contestants as with the Afrikaans ones and I also spoke a lot of Afrikaans. You just can't help it! Sometimes you can really just express yourself in your mother tongue. And then the English contestants laughed at me.
Last question. Viewers will see the Survivor SA Santa Carolina finale live on 21 April. What after that for you?
The second season of Getroud met Rugby on kykNET.
Survivor SA Santa Carolina, Wednesdays, M-Net, 19:30
