Less than a year ago, adventurer and reality television star Serena Shine’s shed would have had animal pelts drying on a rack. Now it’s baby onesies for her daughter Maeve, but she and husband Atoni Toleafoa wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It’s been interesting navigating it all and it’s amazing,” enthuses Serena. “We absolutely love it. Despite the lack of sleep, we have been loving every second of this wild child and soaking up the newborn cuddles.”
Her sister Amber – who is the other half of the Wild Twins – has added to the excitement by announcing that she is also having a baby, in mid-April, saying, “We have a roar baby on the way. I’m super-excited to be bringing the next wild one into the world!”
Amber hopes their child will be a best friend for Maeve, who’s now three months old.
Mum-to-be Amber and Daely shared their exciting news using a baby cup.
Serena and Amber first found fame on Naked And Afraid, an extreme survival challenge where the pair were stranded naked on a deserted island in the Bermuda Triangle, with their only food option to hunt in shark-infested waters. They went back for a second series, living off scorpions, being stalked by leopards and fighting off hyenas in the African wilderness.
The siblings have always felt comfortable in the elements. They were only toddlers when their father first started taking his four daughters out rabbit or possum shooting for pest control. The pair would go on overnight treks into the bush around their rural Franklin property and even before they started school, they were building huts and rafts, and exploring the great outdoors.
“Television wasn’t a thing in our family when we were young,” says Amber. “Any time we’d go missing, Mum would walk out into the paddock and there we were, building a hut or up a tree.”
The 32-year-olds are excitedly looking forward to the day they can take their own children on expeditions, teaching them to love living off the land.
Serena has had to temper her urge to get back into her gung-ho lifestyle, recovering from an emergency Caesarean after a prolonged labour.
“I’ve taken her on bushwalks, tells Serena. “I have heaps of native bush around the house, so I pop her in the front pack and off we go. She loves staring up at the bush canopy at the top. She’s just kind of in a daze, taking it all in. It’s a little bit early for hunting with all the loud noises and also her crying might give our position away!”
Some of that native bush features in a hilarious episode of Anika Moa Unleashed, with the twins teaching the comedian a few life survival skills before she returns the favour and dolls out some parenting survival tips.
Amber spills, “Anika doesn’t deal with hunting well. There’s one moment with a rabbit and she was definitely not used to that. Gathering meat is definitely not her forte! It was hilarious, and gave ‘naked and afraid’ a whole new meaning.”
Serena agrees, saying the episode was “a crack-up”.
“We were pretty much laughing the whole time. It was really enjoyable teaching Anika the bow and arrow, taking her through it step by step, and she took it all on board. But she did ask a few things that shocked us. We just didn’t know how to respond. With survival and being out bush, and all the things we’ve done before, we’re very at home with that, whereas talking to Anika was definitely different.”
Anika’s all about survival of the funniest!
Amber, now a two-time aunty, isn’t taking things easy in the early stages of pregnancy. She’s had her hands full working in partnership with her father developing Castaways Developments, a resort project involving building and selling villas on the Karioitahi clifftops near Waiuku. And she and husband Daely Overdeves have recently returned from a five-week trip to Japan ahead of the summer rush.
The twins are now eagerly anticipating their latest TV appearance, and are planning a barbecue with family and friends to watch their Unleashed episode, expecting a good dose of ribbing.
“They aren’t afraid to take the mickey out of us,” Amber says. “Our family all have the same sense of humour – although sometimes there are things we both find hilarious and our girlfriends not so much.”
The Wild Twins’ episode of Anika Moa Unleashed streams from midday Wednesday on TVNZ+.
