Survivor champ Avi’s new challenge
Why the show’s big winner envies his tribe
As a passionate humanitarian, Avi Duckor-Jones’ life has been rich with people and experiences, but money has been harder to come by. Over the past decade, he’s spent time in West Africa, taught in Fijian villages and worked as a youth expedition leader for National Geographic, funding his travel with the little dosh he made working behind a bar.
Last week, however, the 32-year-old Wellingtonian’s fortunes changed big-time when he was crowned the first-ever champion of reality TV show Survivor NZ, taking away $100,000 in prize money.
“I think the most money I’ve had in my bank account ever has been a few thousand, so this is huge for me,” tells Avi, as he sips on a celebratory pineapple cocktail at Woman’s
Day’s exclusive shoot. He won’t be rushing out to buy
a flash car or put a deposit on a house, though.
“This will mean a great deal more for my students in Ghana who don’t have anything than it does for me,” he tells. “This type of support will really change their lives, so I’ll definitely be giving back to that community.
“I’ve had an awesome life, but I don’t do the work I do to get rich, and I don’t know if I’ll ever have this type of money again, so I’m going to be smart and stick with my crappy old Toyota Corolla.”
While the money hasn’t changed Avi, his experience on Survivor certainly has. After years of living like a nomad, the TVNZ 2 champion – who waited an entire year to hear his fate on last night’s emotional finale – says his 39-day stint in the Nicaraguan jungle concludes that chapter in his life.
“Survivor has been the ultimate test, but it’s made
me want to stop,” says Avi.Avi “I realised out there that I don’t need to do this any more. I don’t need to spend nine months in Ghana to earn a burger and a beer – I feel like I’ve proved myself.
“In a way, I did kind of envy the contestants who came back to their families, steady jobs and homes – that must have been a really safe environment to return to.”
Different path
He admits he’s never lived a conventional life, thanks to his writer dad Lloyd – who wrote award-winning
Mr.Pip – and mum Jo Ellen, who’s a spiritual director for the Jewish community in Wellington.
“My family and I have never really tread a normal path, so I don’t know what an ordinary life looks like,” he explains. “My parents are creative, passionate people who have never worked nine to five jobs. They always encouraged us to do what makes us happy.”
While Avi can’t imagine himself ever enjoying an office job or traditionaltraditional aditional relationship, he does hope to have a family one day and is looking forward to putting down roots in the capital, where he was raised with his older brother Sam, 34, and little sister Sophia, 28.
The close-knit trio enjoyed an outdoorsy Kiwi upbringing full of bush walks, tramping trips and summers spent at their shack at Golden Bay, where Avi’s father taught him to surf. As a teen, Avi recalls “feeling lost and confused”, but says his folks’ break-up at 16 didn’t affect him.
“Weirdly, I was fine with it,” says Avi. “At 16, you’re kinda like, ‘Family? What family? I only need my friends.’ At that age, you finally feel like you have some independence. For me, it was the start of road trips, my first music festivals and drunken experiences.
“Mum and Dad still love each other and love us – we are still incredibly close. But being a teenager in general is such a weird thing. I felt like I didn’t have any direction and was confused about what I was feeling and going through,
so it’s really awesome to be able sit with my young students and let them know everything they are feeling and experiencing is normal, and they’ll get through it.”
While Avi will go down in TV history as New Zealand’s first-ever Survivor champion, he’ll also be remembered as the show’s “nice” guy, a title he doesn’t completely agree with.
“I like to think I’m a good person, but no-one’s just nice. I wouldn’t call any of my family nice – I’d say we are kind and well-meaning, but we can also be a***holes,” he laughs. “My life has been full of adventures. My time in Ghana was so rewarding and so hard. I’m not the most academic person but I finished my law degree and my masters in creative writing, so I’m proud of that.
“Winning Survivor isn’t the ultimate peak of my character, but I’m incredibly proud and I am so grateful to have been a part of it.”