Game On! Librarian Lisa's Survivor Strategy

Going to Thailand Opened a New Chapter for the Christchurch Mum.

- Amy Prebble

She’s a school librarian, board-game enthusiast and, by her own admission, not the most confident woman when it comes to mixing and mingling.

So far, it doesn’t seem like a great formula for a Survivor NZ contestant, but as it turns out, Cantabrian Lisa Stanger is doing rather well on the hit Kiwi series so far – and the super-fan is still shocked that her dream to be on a reality TV show came true.

“It had always been a dream to go on it but it wasn’t possible because it wasn’t in New Zealand,” she says. “Then when they did the New Zealand one, I thought, ‘I could never do that!’ In the past, I’ve sort of struggled a bit socially. I’m not very fit. I’ve got asthma. I just thought it would be a disaster.”

However, by the time TVNZ sought applications for the second series of Survivor NZ, her friends had convinced her to throw her hat in the ring.

“One or two of my friends really encouraged me and said that they thought I’d do well. They really helped me believe in myself and gave me the push to think I could do it,” explains Lisa (38).

The Christchurch mum hosts 15 to 20 people for board games every Friday night. “We play a lot of games that involve lying and hiding your allegiances, and working out how to convince people of things. It was partly because I was so good at those games that made me wonder if I could translate this into real life.”