If it’s crazy or dangerous, the New Zealand Wild Twins are there.
They’ve done everything from skydiving, mountain climbing and hunting - and now, competing in a reality TV series in the African wilderness while naked.
For three weeks, twins Serena and Amber Shine - armed with just a bow, arrow and machete - were left to fend off rhinos, leopards and hyenas for the show Naked and Afraid.
Serena told TVNZ1’s Sunday one night, she woke up to the sound of a hyena panting in her ear.
“I think it’s eat or be eaten out in the wilderness,” Amber said. “It really is an extreme survival challenge.”
Serena said the fraternal twins have a “twin-tuition”, with the pair often communicating without having to speak to one another.
“We have got such a close bond that a lot of the time, we don't need to communicate out loud and look at each other and know what each other are saying,” Serena explained.
She said the pair have been hunting for “most of our lives”.
Thepair first went hunting as young children with their dad, Gavin Shine, who would take them possum and rabbit shooting.
However, their adventurous spirit has been present since they were toddlers.
“I’ve had them up, climbing up tops of trees when they’re four years old and I would be scared when I came out the door and saw. But I didn’t yell, I said, ‘Oh, how’s it going?, ‘Oh, fine, Mum.” and they’d climb down,” mum Raewyn Shine explained.
The 29-year-olds’ sense of adventure took them from rural Waikato, where they grew up to all over the world.
It also saw them join the army, work the mines and other jobs of an unusual variety, including as a dog sled tour guide.
While mum Raewyn was initially not so enthused when Naked and Afraid came knocking, the twins were up for the challenge.
“At first, we thought it was a bit of a joke, but once we watched the programme and saw that the naked part is just survival and how much harder it makes everything, then we were like, ‘Yeah, we’ve got to do this challenge,” Amber said.
Serena called the naked element behind the show an “extreme survival challenge”.
“With so much exposed skin, you have to be really, really careful,” she said. “It takes it to a whole different realm, not having any clothes on and trying to survive.”
The pair’s days were spent hunting for food.
“You become very in tune with everything,” Serena said. “All your senses are heightened. The eye’s on the prize, you're wanting to hunt and get food.”
But for the wild twins, the lifestyle isn't just for TV - the outdoors is what they live and breathe.
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