You’d think having a husband who’d competed on Celebrity Treasure Island not once, but twice, might have come in handy for Matilda Green.
You’d think wrong.
“It was absolutely no help,” she laughs during our post-elimination chat.
“Absolutely zero. I went in kind of understanding how it works, because obviously I had watched a few seasons with Art on it. But even then, I feel like I had watched those seasons and then instantly forgot about them!”
Not that you’d have known watching this season’s premiere episode – straight out the gate, boom! There’s the winner of The Bachelor season one balancing on one foot on a wooden peg in the very first challenge.
"That was a pretty cool moment,” she admits.
“But also, I peaked on day one! And then the bar’s set so high, because everyone thinks you’re this force to be reckoned with, when I was just good at balancing on that one thing. And then all of a sudden everyone thinks I’m this super human.”
It did win her captaincy, though – a role which provides power, but also comes with great responsibility.
Sure, you’re immune from being sent up for elimination, but you’re also often the one having to make the tough calls.
Twice, Matilda was forced to choose the competitors going up for the elimination battle – someone from her own team, and someone from the opposition.
For the people-pleasing mum, it was incredibly stressful.
“I found it absolutely horrific because, one, I didn’t have any strategy in terms of putting people up or putting people against other people in the team.
"I also discovered that I don’t think I think well under pressure, which is obviously very unhelpful for being captain. So, yeah, really quite unpleasant being captain, to be quite honest.”
She also memorably forgot teammate Grant Lobban’s name on day two of the competition – something she still loses sleep over.
“Honestly, it’s my biggest regret of the show,” she tells me, still exacerbated.
“It looked so mean! I was hoping my microphone wouldn’t pick it up, and I was like ‘I’ve lost your name, I can’t remember your name’. I thought it kind of flew under the radar, but it obviously didn’t. I think I just got so stressed in the moment.”
Despite the difficulties making the tough decisions, the fierce competitor also created incredibly strong bonds out there with a team stacked with brilliant personalities like James Mustapic, Matt Gibb and Tāme Iti.
“Like, I got to sit around a campfire with Tāme Iti and hear about all of his life stories while waiting to compete in a challenge together,” she tells me.
“It was just completely absurd.”
Although she wasn’t privy to some of the strategic conversations, nor was she able to secure successful alliances, Matilda Green was front and centre in many of her fellow competitors minds – so much so, she found herself put up in back-to-back elimination battles after she lost her captaincy.
“I definitely wish I could’ve flown under the radar a little more, just because I think if I hadn’t become captain on that first day, then I would’ve been able to stay a lot longer, because I don’t think people would’ve seen me as a threat at all,” she explains.
“Whereas after that first challenge, people’s perceptions of me may have changed a little bit, and that’s when I became a little bit threatening, in a perceived way.”
She managed to win her first elimination battle against Mary Lambie, although that came with its own set of post-war challenges.
“That night really threw me, because when I thought I might be going home, part of me was really relieved because I thought ‘oh, I can go home and see my kids’ because I was really missing my family. So part of me was really ready to go home because I was excited to see them.
“And then to find out that I was staying, it messed with my head a little bit. I’d been able to compartmentalise my family life until that point to play the game, but I had allowed myself to open the box, and it was hard to close the lid again.”
It meant losing the next elimination battle against Shortland Street legend Blair Strang was an easier pill to swallow.
“I was actually OK, because I’d had that moment of being excited to go home. So I was ready. I was actually ready.”
It’s been a rough ride for Matilda’s team this week, with Tohorā losing both Green and Tāme Iti this week. But with some of the strongest players in the game left on Team Purple, it ain’t over yet.
As for Matilda Green, she carries with her a sense of immense pride.
“I leave with just one of the most amazing experiences of my life,” she happily tells me.
“When else in your life will you ever get to do these ridiculous challenges around these incredible people? So it was amazing, and I think it’s nice to prove to yourself that you can do challenging things, as well. That is always a cool feeling.”
But with baby on the way only a few weeks away, I’d say Matilda Green has other things on her mind now.
Matty McLean is a former winner of Celebrity Treasure Island, and will be interviewing the eliminated contestants for 1news.co.nz
You can watch the current season Monday-Wednesday at 7.30pm on TVNZ2 or catch up on TVNZ+
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