Gabe Ross, of Lake Hāwea, and Riley Meason, of East Otago, make up one of eight teams competing on Tracked, Three’s new reality television show that sees contestants scaling New Zealand’s southern wilds in a race to win $100,000.
The teams must also evade capture by a pair of active New Zealand special forces trackers, who use every trick in their arsenal to try to bring them down.
Mr Ross, a third-year business student at the University of Otago, said the opportunity to square off against both nature and fellow outdoor enthusiasts was an obvious draw for the two friends.
"We’re both pretty competitive guys, so it was nice bringing the whole ‘get away from the trackers’ aspect but also seeing how you shape up against some of the best in the world in their own regard."
Mr Ross and Mr Meason share a passion for hunting.
After meeting in year 11 of high school, the pair began documenting their excursions on camera.
This soon evolved into The Weekend Mish, a series of hunting, fishing and diving shorts they uploaded to social media.
"It was really hard physically, but mentally you’re out there for two or three days at a time and you’re s...ing yourself the entire time because you don’t know where the trackers are, you don’t know what’s going on.
"We reckon they’ve portrayed that pretty well on TV.
"What we did, what we went through, is what you see.
"Straight emotion."
With the show’s filming wrapped last year, the pair were hoping they can make The Weekend Mish a full-time gig.
Mr Ross said the support they received from the public was a huge motivator.
"It’s awesome when people talk to us, and we love talking about it because it was such a cool experience."
"There were a lot of ups and downs, but the challenge, being scared 24/7, in a weird way it was just awesome.
"It was so much fun."
Tracked airs at 7.30pm on Mondays and Tuesdays on Three and streams on ThreeNow.
