Nicole did so well to stay social and under the radar that it took until merge for her to feel in danger.

She (needlessly, it turned out) played the Immunity Idol Renier was holding onto, and Marisha was ousted after Tyson played his Immunity Idols for Chappies, annulling and leaving us with this iconic image.

In the ‘Tied Destinies’ episode, she was paired with her finale partner Anela. And Nicole demonstrated her significant balance and endurance skills, winning the Reward Challenge.

Unfortunately, she then made a strategic mistake by taking Renier and Amy with them to the water park reward, further cementing the divisions in Osindile.

This ultimately led to the elimination of Renier and her best ally Amy.

In the episode that ended with Anesu’s blindside, she was the only player who chose not to sit the challenge out to enjoy spaghetti bolognaise – she went up against ‘Aquaman’ / ‘Challenge Beast’ Chappies.

While she couldn’t beat him, it spoke to her indomitable will to win.

Nicole was sitting pretty in the next episode – literally and figuratively! First, she scored the beggars plate at the Survivor auction, which led to her enjoying proceedings from a bathtub whilst drinking champagne and taking bites out of everyone’s food purchases!

She also bought herself a Send Ticket at the auction and used it to visit Immunity Island, staying, playing – and winning – the Fire Idol.

She played her Fire Idol at the next Tribal Council, meaning the two people with the most votes had to go up against one another in a fire-making challenge, and Tyson won to send Santoni packing.

Then, after Anela backtracked on his plan to blindside Kiran, Nicole found herself in an unlikely (and fleeting) alliance with Chappes.

In the Immunity Challenge, she once again proved her grit and determination.

Chappies secured another immunity in that challenge, and with Nicole and Anela on board, it resulted in us losing our loveable Minister of Rice, Kiran.

But at that Tribal Council, we got a preview of what she might say to the jury.

Now in the top four, it was revealed to our castaways at Tribal Council that there would be one more Immunity Challenge. This caused Chappies – again sitting pretty with immunity – to rethink his decision to vote for Tyson.

To her credit, she stuck with her original plan, and it was the end of the road for one Idol Whisperer. Who knows what might have changed had she not stuck to her guns?

In the finale, Nicole pulled off the biggest win of the game, outlasting Chappies and denying him a Survivor SA record by enduring the Hand on Hard Idol challenge for over two hours.

This meant she could choose who sat with her at the final Tribal – and she made no mistake by choosing Anela, slaying the dragon that was Chappies.

Her speech and answers at that final Tribal Council were eloquent and persuasive.

And she won Survivor in a landslide, with only Shaun voting for Anela!

After the reunion, she was grateful and gracious.

We stan a super Survivor SA winner!

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