Victory will be sweet! CANDY'S NO QUITTER

The dancer isn’t on Celebrity Treasure Island just to look good

Kiwis are used to seeing Candy Lane looking sparkling and glamorous in her shimmering gowns, elegant high heels and perfectly applied makeup. But the dancer and choreographer has a message for anyone who thinks she can’t cut it as a gritty, grimy, bush-whacking contestant on Celebrity Treasure Island – don’t underestimate her!

“I don’t believe they think I’ll rough it,” Candy laughs as she prepares to spend a month in the Northland wilderness with 20 other contestants on the hit reality TV show. “But that’s a mistake. I can do rough.”

At 61, Candy is the oldest female contestant in this year’s season and despite having the odd bodily twinge from her decades as a world-class dancer, she says being a little longer in the tooth comes with some advantages.

“Being older, you can use your head a little bit more and not freak out,” muses the mother-of-two. “You learn to bite your tongue a little bit.

Hopefully, I’ll fly under the radar for long enough – and if I’m underestimated because of my age, that can work in my favour.”

Keeping a cool head in the face of stiff competition – and having a strong work ethic – is something Candy learned from a young age.

The Auckland-born youngster first represented New Zealand in dancing when she was 10 years old and by the time she was 15, she’d won every dancing title available to her.

But it was her years working in her parents’ two inner-city shoe shops that really honed her life skills.