They might be rugged mountain men, but the winners of reality TV show Tracked admit they’re really softies at heart.
Gabe Ross and Riley Meason were crowned the winners of the first-ever series of Tracked, which pits eight teams against a group of elite trackers on a race through some of the harshest environments in
the South Island.
But the 20-year-olds, who met at high school, say their $100,000 win was all down to their mothers.
“Our mums are our biggest supporters and the ones who encouraged us to enter the competition,” says Gabe, who’s doing a business degree at the University of Otago. “Even though they worried more about our safety than we did!”
Riley with mum Victoria.
The best friends were by far the show’s youngest competitors, but they didn’t let the age gap get in the way of beating their more experienced British, US and Australian counterparts.
“When we met the others, we were a bit intimidated about their qualifications and backgrounds,” admits Riley, who works on a farm north of Dunedin. “These people had thrown themselves out of planes and run 140km races, whereas we’d only ever run 10km before.”
“But what we lacked in age, we made up for with familiarity with this part of New Zealand,” adds Gabe, who moved to the South Island when he was 14 after his parents Justine and Geoff Ross, better known as the founders of the 42 Below vodka brand, bought Lake Hawea Station.
Gabe with Justine.
“We’re both passionate about hunting and spending as much time in the bush as we can, so we had a huge advantage when it came to knowing the terrain. When we looked at the map, we knew that it would take half a day to make our way through a beech forest or that we’d only get 500m in an hour through dense scrub.”
It also helped that a year ago Riley had completed an outdoor education course, which gave him valuable compass and map-reading skills.
The pair entered the competition after Gabe’s big brother told them he was signing up for it. “We liked the idea that it wasn’t the usual reality show like Love Island, but one that could actually showcase our skills and challenge us against the best in the world,” shares Riley.
While his brother didn’t make it into the final eight, Gabe believes his and Riley’s “willingness to have a crack at anything” is what got them over the line, adding, “We had to undergo some pretty intense psychological testing to make sure we weren’t going to run away!”
It was something that never crossed their minds, no matter how hard things got.
“One night, we spent eight hours walking in the dark with head-high blackberry bushes cutting into us,” recalls Gabe. “We’re also really close to our brothers. There were so many times it would have been great to ask their advice, but we weren’t allowed to.”
The boys admit they were initially intimidated by the other teams.
For Riley, the challenge was more physical. “We did a river crossing and my underwear got wet and then we walked for hours, so I had the worst chafing down there I’ve ever experienced!”
Gabe laughs, “It takes a special mate to help someone sort that out.”
But the modest pair say they didn’t go into the competition expecting to win.
“When we got to the end and saw [host] Vinnie Jones with the cash in his hands, the tears started streaming,” tells Riley. “We were so unbelievably proud of how we performed.”
Meeting Vinnie, the British actor-turned-hardman, was a particular highlight.
“I watched one of his movies the night before the competition and what you see with Vinnie is what you get,” says Riley. “He’s absolutely ruthless but also a very kind and loving man. When we won, he hugged us and we did a little dance with him. That was amazing, as was bonding with the other teams.”
While Gabe intends to use some of his prize money to pay off his student loan, the pair plan to put cash towards developing their YouTube channel The Weekend Mish, which focuses on their hunting, fishing and tramping exploits.
“We started the channel a year after we met and have gained quite a few followers,” tells Gabe. “Our dream would be to have a TV show.”
Riley (right) does all the heavy lifting in this friendship!
They hope their efforts on Tracked will inspire other Kiwis to get out and explore what Aotearoa has to offer.
“Our approach with everything in life is to say yes, give it our best shot and back ourselves because that’s worked for us so far,” enthuses Riley.
The full series of Tracked is streaming on ThreeNow.
