BARB’S WIRED!
The secret schemer play son
She might not have the endurance or ego to rival her younger competitors, but having three kids is all the training Barbara Raos needs to reign supreme in the Nicaraguan jungle.
“Raising children is the best experience because you are so used to your kids trying to get one over you,” says the 56-year-old SurvivorNZ contestant, a mother to sons Sam, 23, and Jack, 19, and daughter Devon, 22.
“I don’t want to call the other contestants kids, but it would be like when Devon wanted to wear two outfits and neither of them was suitable, so I’d pick out some and let her choose – then she’d think she was in control. The same rules apply in the jungle.”
Indeed, it was Barb’s expert ability to influence and sway her fellow tribe members that allowed her to win the majority vote and send the TVNZ 2 show’s kingpin Sala packing. It was hailed the power play no-one saw coming – except Barb, of course.
“I spent the first 12 days being discounted and viewed as expendable,” explains the former personal assistant, who lives on a five-hectare lifestyle block in rural Auckland with her businessman hubby Dave. “It was truly miserable. Most of the contestants were under the belief that if you weren’t scrambling, then you weren’t strategising, but they were wrong.
“I would stay up each night and go through my plan. I knew overthrowing Sala was a bold move, but it was my only shot and I really didn’t have anything to lose.”
So does she feel bad? “I wasn’t fussed at all,” cackles Barb. “We all came to play knowing we could get voted off at any moment and it was his time to go. Hell has no fury like an old person marginalised!”