Hi everyone! A bumper four-interview Survivor SA special for you today. I caught up with all of the final four for us last Friday morning after things wrapped on Wednesday night and thought you're enjoy ripping through one to the next.
Of course I started with winning Lorette Mostert to find out how she feels being covered in bucks:
Tashi: Congrats on the win! What did you get up to immediately after it happened?
Lorette: After Mark made the announcement it was off to media interviews, got back, went to the after party and chatted to all the fans - I was so surprised about - went to bed, had a few hours of sleep, got up the next morning and it was back to media interviews the whole day in half hour bouts, up until about, I’d say 7pm.
Tashi: What was the most difficult question you got in your media interviews?
Lorette: To me it’s a very new field so they were all difficult. Fortunately later on the questions became quite similar - but the one that was the most difficult that I still don’t have the correct answer for is: “What are you going to do with the million?”
Tashi: Of course it's one of my questions - what are you gonna do with it?
Lorette: Currently I’m just gonna keep it one side in a bank account and I’m gonna leave it there. I managed before the million, I’ll probably manage after the million so we still have no no idea.
Tashi: Does having a million bucks in your account make you nervous?
Lorette: In a way yes it does make me nervous. I’ve always been satisfied with my life - I have got a house that I’m living in, I do have a vehicle so I have the basic necessities and now this big lumpsome of cash that I’m responsible for - it does make you nervous so it’s a big responsibility.
Tashi: Yes I once spoke to a Survivor winner who said that when you don’t have money you think it’s stressful and then when you win a million it’s even more stressful. Along the way - who did you think the winner would be?
Lorette: While playing the game I never actually thought about winning the money. To me it was never an option - it was an added bonus honestly. I know Survivor’s an unpredictable game so I just got up every day, enjoyed every day to the fullest thinking it could be my last day on the island and I went like that for 27 days and then I got to the final. The money was never a focus to me, Survival was the focus for me.
Tashi: Who did you think looked like a strong competitor to win?
Lorette: Mandla had a physical ability, Hein had the Survival knowledge and then watching the show, as the viewer saw it, Grant was my first choice - he played an excellent, strategic game.
Tashi: What are things like between you and Angie now?
Lorette: After the show, we’re actually friends. We had personality clashes on the island - I think we’ve got similar personalities and we’re strong willed and with the lack of sleep, lack of food - that caused ruptions. Afterwards, I enjoy her company and she, well I hope, she enjoys my company and we’re quite good friends.
Tashi: What was the lowest point for you?
Lorette: My tears on national TV.
Tashi: (laughs) When you watched it or when you were there?
Lorette: That was hard to handle for me. Even when I was there - I knew, “Uh, this is gonna be great TV, M-Net’s going to love this part.” So I went through it and then I immediately stopped my interview and bit my tongue and stopped the tears and said, “Okay I’m back,” and they didn’t show the rest. It was both the incident and the public seeing it.
Tashi: What was your most memorable moment - besides winning the million obviously?
Lorette: That family reward challenge. You’re 20-plus days into the show, you’re tired, you’re irritated, you’re hungry, you know you’ve got maybe 5 to 7 days left and then to see something from home. That part of my life coming through the bushes - my husband - that picture there, I will never never forget that picture - it was an energy boost 100%.
Tashi: What were you thinking when you were on the final balance beam?
Lorette: I just imagined my kids - you know you stand there … I kept thinking about how long I’d be able to stand. I ran the Comrades last year and I finished within 11 hours so I knew, “Okay, I’m alright for eleven hours.” Then I thought about - I was calculating … we walked to the start so that was about a half an hour, afterwards I was on my feet for about a half and hour to an hour so I was doing mathematical calculations: “How long will I be able to stand?” and I came to about 12 hours and 15 minutes and thought that up until that point I might be safe.
Later on, after I’d finished the calculations, I started looking to the beach. I was facing away from the other contestants so I saw this stone on the beach - because you do get tired just standing on one spot - so I thought, “I wonder if I shouldn’t just jump off?” then I thought about my kids and the sacrifice they made and I thought, “This is the final one - I can just as well stick to it and give it back - they sacrificed more than a few hours of standing on one spot.” Those were my two main consuming actions standing on the beam.
Tashi: What’s your advice to future Survivor players?
Lorette: Enjoy the game, that’s all. There’s no one strategy that works. I went into the game without a strategy. Survivor, in my opinion, involves quite a lot of luck. Right time, right spot - that carried me through a few challenges, a few incidents - so there’s not one strategy that works. Just go and enjoy your game - there’s only gonna be one winner, it may be you, it may not be you so enjoy your time.
Tashi: What beat can we find you policing?
Lorette: That would the entire Witbank area where the crime is. Basically we do a whole analysis and where the crime is, that’s where I’ll be.
Tashi: It’s so funny picturing you dashing off after criminals, gun in hand. Do you do that?
Lorette: I haven’t done it for quite some time - I had an administrative job for seven years and I was posted out to Witbank police station last week Monday.
I was involved at the provincial office in Middelberg and they relocated the office to Nelspruit but we’re based in Middelburg - we live there, my husband’s got his business there - so it was almost impossible for us to relocate.
I asked if they could accommodate me in or around Middelburg and they accommodated me at Witbank in Crime Provention so I’m back into my boots, my shirt, my slacks, my holster and my gun.
Ends