Celebrity Treasure Island 2022

Alex King's allergies are “out the gate”. Iyia Liu says she was so stressed about the “no phone” rule that she left her phone all the way back in Auckland.

I only had a go at the very last part of the challenge, and I was knackered after 10 seconds. The final stop in the tour was to check out the different camps that our celebrities would be calling home for the next few weeks. I lay down on one of the beds, enjoying the sun on my skin, the gentle breeze, the lapping afternoon waves. I knocked on the side of the cockpit, and the executive producer told me that they used Selleys No More Gaps to emulate the rivets. I got a sneak peek at one of the challenges, which required contestants to swim out to sea, run up a huge bank and then push giant heavy tiles across a massive sliding puzzle to spell a word. “What we say has the power to influence their perception, even in a small way.” I believed actor Eds Eramiha when he told me he had barely seen the show, and had no real strategy going in to the competition. “I have a question about periods,” she says, sidling up to one of the executive producers of Celebrity Treasure Island. At the top of the ridge, I peered out at the first glimmer of ocean, spotting the CTI challenge lighthouse in the distance. The night before, we were welcomed onto the land with a pōwhiri that brought together the family who own the land, local iwi, production crew, the celebrity cast and the media hangers-on like me. “If I’m here until the end it is going to happen, and it is always a surprise to me.” She makes a good point – what does one do with one’s menstrual cup in the middle of nowhere? The first thing that struck me during my 48 hours on Celebrity Treasure Island was how gnarly and remote the Northland location really is.