Racing report
Amazing Race Canada Season 10, Episode 9, "Where are you Mr. Oyster?"
Film dates: 2024-05-13
The last leg ended on the Long Sault Parkway in Ontario. AT the start of this leg all teams travel on the same flight from Montreal on Moncton, NB. The first time we see the teams is when they all run out of the Moncton airport together. They run up to the provided sponsor cars and jump in. The clue inside tells them to drive to Neguac where they will hop on a jet ski and search 1300 oyster cages for one of 5 golden oysters. The cages are hanging at the surface of the water and the golden oyster hangs on the outside so it can be seen when passing by on their jet ski.
Michael & Tyson make a wrong turn when leaving the airport. It is only when they reach Nova Scotia they realize they are heading in the wrong direction. All in all they probably lost about 45 minutes on this detour.
Teams arrive at Neguac (178km) in the following order:
1. Colin & Matt
2. Lauren & Nicole
3. Taylor & Katie
4. Kevin & Gurleen
5. Michael & Tyson
"Where are you Mr. Oyster?", Colin gets the title
"I can't believe they are here", Tyson when they see that Taylor & Katie are still at this task
"We hate oysters" Katie after they found theirs
Teams find their golden oysters in the following order:
1(+3) Kevin & Gurleen
2(-1) Colin & Matt
3(-1) Lauren & Nicole
4(+1) Michael & Tyson
5(-2) Taylor & Katie
Road block: Who will drop the ball?
In this road block racers must ride two zip-lines back and forth over French Fort Cove. On each pass they may drop a ball into one of four floating targets worth 1, 2, 2 and 5 points. They must score a total of five points before they will get their next clue. The initial clue also states that Colin, Gurleen, Michael, Nicole and Taylor must attempt this.
The French Fort Cove is 47km away.
This task is not trivial but most teams seem to get it after a few tries. The exception is Taylor who really seems to struggle.
Teams complete this road block in the following order (* denotes team member doing the road block):
| 1(+1) | Colin* & Matt | (5-5) | |
| 2(+1) | Lauren & Nicole* | (5-5) | |
| 3(-2) | Kevin & Gurleen* | (5-5) | |
| 4(+0) | Michael* & Tyson | (5-5) | Is the only one shown hitting the 5 point target |
| 5(+0) | Taylor* & Katie | (5-5) | |
Face off: Fight the fire
In this face off teams must run a firefighting relay race. They must knock down two cones with water from a hose (which they first has to drag a bit), cut a padlock to get through a door, use a handheld fire extinguisher to put out a small fire and finally carry a dummy across the finish line.
This task takes place at the NBCC Firefighter Field Training Centre (10km).
"I was in fire cadets for a year and a half", Katie hopes this will help in the upcoming task
Teams reach the face off in the following order:
1(+0) Colin & Matt
2(+2) Michael & Tyson
3(-1) Lauren & Nicole
4(-1) Kevin & Gurleen
5(+0) Taylor & Katie
As expected this turns out to be a fairly physical detour. So Lauren & Nicole are struggling, and to make matters worse they both develop problems with their feet during this challenge.
Teams leave the face off in the following order:
1(+0) Colin & Matt win over Michael & Tyson
2(+0) Michael & Tyson win over Lauren & Nicole
3(+1) Kevin & Gurleen win over Lauren & Nicole
4(+1) Taylor & Katie win over Lauren & Nicole
5(-2) Lauren & Nicole have to serve a 10 minutes penalty
Detour: Footwork or Gumshoe?
Footwork takes place at Water Street in downtown Miramichi. Here one team member must learn and perform an Irish Brush dance while the other does the Filipino Tiniklin dance.
Gumshoe takes place at the New Brunswick community College in Miramichi. Teams must solve a crime by observing the crime scene and listening to witness statements. They need to figure out who stole what and when.
For the dancing the team has to successfully perform both dances in one go. So if one of them fails they both have to redo their dances.
Teams complete the detour in the following order:
1(+1) Michael & Tyson, dance on their 3rd attempt
2(+3) Lauren & Nicole, dance on their 1st attempt
3(+0) Kevin & Gurleen, detective
4(-3) Colin & Matt, detective
5(-1) Taylor & Katie, detective
Route info: It's a big year
Teams must now drive to Metapenagiag Heritage Park (32km). Here one person must memorize the correct pronunciations of all the months in Mi'kmaq and their partner must learn the English descriptions. There are 12 plaques with one month each. They look like this:
WIKUMKEWIKU'S
WEE-GOOM-KEH-WEE-GOOZE
ANIMAL MATING TIME
SEPTEMBER
When they have correctly recited all twelve months and their English translations to the judge they will get their next clue.
"This is gonna take two hours, right?", Michael
"It's really smart to take a penalty", Tyson
Michael & Tyson realize that this is a hard task and they decide to take the 2h penalty. We can have many opinions about this but at least they did it right away. So their gamble is that it will take other teams at least 2h to do the task, and Taylor & Katie and Colin & Matt have not even arrived here yet. This is a gamble and time will tell if it works.
"I get to recite my language!", Taylor is excited when she reads the clue
Kevin & Gurleen have a hard time with this task. And it is Kevin, who needs to remember the English translations who struggle.
We also have a touching moment when, after they are approved, Taylor lets the judge know that she is a proud member of the Miwapukek First Nation and they get a hugged by the judge.
Teams complete this task in the following order:
1(+0) Michael & Tyson, took the penalty and will have to wait 2h at the pit stop
2(+0) Lauren & Nicole, on their 2nd attempt
3(+2) Taylor & Katie, on their 1st attempt
4(+0) Colin & Matt, on their 4th attempt
5(-2) Kevin & Gurleen, on their 2nd attempt
The next clue sends teams back to Miramichi where they have to locate Middle Island where Jon and the mat is waiting. Jon tells us that the first four teams to check in will get to race in the finale.
On their way to the island we get a shot of Kevin saying that he knows how to get there so they should not stop for directions. They overshoot the island a bit and drive down Forest St down to Water St, they start to turn left but then decide that the island probably is to the right. But in reality they should have turned left.
And Colin & Matt run into a literal road block when they encounter a construction crew and the road they are driving on is closed.
Teams check in at the mat (38km) in the following order:
----- Michael & Tyson, have to serve their 2h penalty
1(+1) Lauren & Nicole, ~45 minutes after Michael & Tyson and they win a trip to Paris and $10,000
2(+1) Taylor & Katie, ~1h35m after Michael & Tyson
3(+1) Colin & Matt
4(-3) Michael & Tyson
5(+0) Kevin & Gurleen are eliminated
While anxiously waiting out their penalty Michael & Tyson engage in some faulty math. As it took them 40 minutes to get to the pit stop (which is about expected) the other teams only have 1h20m to finish the challenge. But that is wrong, it will take all teams roughly the same time to drive to the pit stop so yes, teams only ave 1h20 left to finish the challenge, but they have already spent 40 minutes there while Michael & Tyson drove to the pit stop.
"We thought it was over for us at the firefighting challenge when we could not lift that hose.", Lauren
According to Jon Kevin & Gurleen arrive at the mat less than 5 minutes after Michael & Tyson checked in.
"I'm so proud of Gurleen, I'm so proud of us", Kevin