Whether you want to call them the Oil Riggers, death snails, or the Canadian roughnecks, Nikola “Nik” Milutinovic and Kennedy Taylor made it very clear during their time on Race to Survive: New Zealand that they were a force to be reckoned with. They methodically paced themselves throughout the race, avoided injury, slaughtered sheep, and crashlanded into the finale, all while being emotionally vulnerable with the cameras.
Throughout the entire show, Nik and Kennedy showed a tremendous amount of resilience, but the final stretch of the race put them through hell. It was so hellish that Nik said he lost his soul. They practically crawled across the finish line and narrowly missed out on the $500,000 prize. Now that the dust has settled, it’s back to reality, and there’s an urge to do the whole thing all over again.
Back to real life
Reality Tea spoke to Nik about the epic Race to Survive: New Zealand finale. Kennedy was set to join the conversation but had a last-minute work emergency — a stark reminder that although we’re watching these folks do incredible feats on television, they’re regular people with regular lives. For Nik, that reminder hit him pretty much as soon as he got home from New Zealand. He said he got slapped with a ton of “real world stuff,” despite being exhausted from the 40-day race.
“You start working, but you’re like depleted,” Nik recalled. ” I got back, and it was like the real world, you got to go back to work, and I did that for six months.”
Meanwhile, Nik is also in the process of remodeling a house and going head-to-head with a scammy roofing contractor. In comparison, it turns out that being in New Zealand with no food wasn’t so bad after all, even if he did feel like he lost his soul during the last stretch of the race.
Why Nik felt soulless by the end of the race
During the final stretch of Race 6, Nik seemed sick with the entire experience. He looked drained and was seemingly got grouchy toward the producers. Watching from home, it might have seemed like Nik was being a sore loser because the Smokejumpers already claimed victory. However, Nik clarified that it wasn’t about their placement in the race. His behavior was more of a response to the 40 days spent in the wilderness.
“We scaled up 9000 feet of elevation in the first part [of Race 6],” Nik recalled.
When they came down from the high elevation, Nik said they moved into a stretch of race that was so unbearable it completely sucked the life right out of his body.
“I know that 500-meter piece of the ground took my soul,” Nik remarked. “You’re coming into basically just thick in-your-face jungle. There are pitfalls everywhere. It’s not easygoing. I’m just like, ‘This is bull, bro.'”
Nik said he was running off of “zero percent” at that point, but Kennedy was pushing him to keep going. He felt like he didn’t really give “two flying F’s” about the End Crate, but at the same time, quitting was never an option.
“We’re finishing either way. It was just slow.” Nik explained. “That’s when it really took a lot out of my soul.”
Ready for another adventure on Race to Survive
Ultimately. Nik and Kennedy weren’t even sure if they were going to be in the final. At the end of Race 4, Nik said he was completely surprised by the double elimination. He was ready to go back to civilization and eat real food for the first time in weeks, but suddenly, he learned they were still in the race.
“In my vision, I was like, I’m going to hand this sheep off to the contestants and be like, ‘Enjoy your final race. I’m going to the hotel to eat burgers,'” Nik joked.
Then, all of a sudden, the news dropped that they were still in the race. Nik and Kennedy managed to beat Race 5’s time trial and maintained a steady lead throughout Race 6. Eventually, the Smokejumpers passed them up, and Nik said he wasn’t surprised.
“It’s not unexpected. They’re just basically V8 diesel and they keep going. There’s no stopping them,” Nik admitted.
After coming so close to victory, there’s undoubtedly an itch to come back and do it again. For Nik, spending weeks cut off from the real world was a bit of a relief — even if it did mean starving and busting his body.
“This was my vacation. People won’t really understand that this was my vacation. That two months in the bush was awesome. No phone, no nothing,” Nik explained.
There’s no word on whether or not Race to Survive will return for another season, but if they do, Nik wants to do it all over again. It’s never too soon for another vacation, right?
“I would go back this year. 100% I would be back,” Nik shared. “There’s no competition like this. It’s just a lot of madness”
Race to Survive: New Zealand is streaming on Peacock.
TELL US – WHAT DID YOU THINK OF NIK AND KENNEDY’S PERFORMANCE ON RACE TO SURVIVE: NEW ZEALAND? ARE YOU SURPRISED TO HEAR NIK CALL IT A “VACATION?”
