Heartbreaking elimination for Pete and Bridget Helliar on The Amazing Race Australia. See how they were eliminated in the penultimate episode
The Amazing Race Australia: Celebrity Edition on Channel 10 ramped up the tension on 13 October, as the four remaining teams competed fiercely for a spot in the Grand Finale.
Unfortunately, the journey came to an end for Pete Helliar and his wife Bridget, after a particularly gruelling leg saw them eliminated from the race.
Despite an early lead, a roadblock pushed the couple into last place. Reflecting on their elimination, Pete admitted,
“We were trying to stay positive because we always reminded ourselves that weird things can happen on The Amazing Race and you’re never quite sure where you are.”
He expressed disappointment at missing the final by such a slim margin:
“It was pretty disappointing to get so close to the grand finale. To say we got through every episode and experienced it all would have been great.
With that said, we were lucky enough to survive a non-elimination. Sometimes the luck went our way, sometimes it went against us, but we had a great time.”
The episode began with the teams arriving in Phuket, Thailand, where they scoured large turtle egg sculptures at Phuket Gateway before heading to an elephant sanctuary. There, they gave some of the majestic animals a spa day, complete with a mud bath and a shower.
Next, the teams made their way to a local school, where one member from each pair was tasked with using a slingshot to knock down 10 tin cans. While all the teams found this challenging, Pete had a particularly hard time, leaving him and Bridget trailing behind the rest.
The subsequent detour presented a difficult choice between two tasks: Frame or Fame. In Frame, teams visited the historic Thalang Road to memorise the appearance of three windows, then searched for the real buildings and their corresponding street numbers. Meanwhile, in Fame, teams helped a cabaret performer at a nearby theatre get dressed, using only 10-second glimpses of the costume shown on stage.
Both detours demanded attention to detail, but it was the race to the pit stop that sealed the Helliars’ fate. Despite their best efforts, they arrived just minutes behind the other teams, missing out on a spot in the final leg of the competition. Still, they remained positive about their experience, particularly their support for the Cure EB Foundation.
Speaking about the charity they were racing for, Pete said:
“We got involved with Cure EB about a year and a half ago and [Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB)] is this horrific disease which is basically akin to having sunburn on the inside of your skin. There’s no government funding because it’s a pretty rare condition, so awareness and money is needed.”
He went on to explain how their cause motivated them:
“We were pretty driven to try and win it for Cure EB and the kids who suffer from it. It certainly helped us in those moments when you’re thinking, ‘this is hard’, that there are kids who have to get bandaged up every day so that their pain is bearable or manageable.
We were very proud to be supporting them and will continue to do work with them in the future.”
