The reigning New Zealand chilli-eating champ Stewart Gauld says he's looking forward to braving the fire again at this year's competition.
Last year's final was Stewart first ever chilli-eating competition.
He'd recently returned to Tauranga from four months in Jakarta eating chilli for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
After hearing about the NZ Chilli Champs on the radio a couple of days before the final, Stewart contacted the organiser to try and get a late entry.
He was told to come up to Auckland try and get a door sales ticket and find him.
"I ended up being the wild card."
Stewart was one of 12 competitors on stage – and the only one who hadn't won a regional heat – in front of a crowd of around 800 people.
The challenge was to eat increasingly hot whole chillis without leaving the stage, drinking milk or vomiting.
Chilli pungency is measured in Scoville heat units.
First up was a jalapeno, at 2,500 to 5,000 Scovilles.
The competitors had to chew the whole chilli for 30 seconds then open their mouths to display the chewed-up chilli (in order to prove they hadn't hidden it at the back of your throat or swallowed it whole), Stewart says.
After a four minute wait, it was time for the next chilli and so on and so on for 20 rounds.
Everyone was poker-faced for the first 5 or 10 rounds, Stewart says.
Sweating profusely, with excruciating pain in his stomach, throat and lips, and a heart rate monitor reading 158 beats a minute (three times his resting pulse of 55), he says he was just trying not to come last.
"I was shaking, burning everywhere… and then people just started dropping off."
By Round 19, Stewart and Jess "Chilli Fillie" Gardner were the only competitors left on stage contending with the Carolina Reaper (at 1.6 million Scovilles, about 800 times hotter than a jalapeno).
If either one drank the glass of milk in front of them, walked offstage or vomited, they would lose.
People feel chilli-related pain in different parts of body, Stewart says. For him, it was his stomach.
"My stomach just wanted to give in, I just really wanted to throw up but I was holding the poker face and I could tell the other competitor was reaching for the milk and was going to give in any second. Then she reached for the milk and drank it and I became champion."
Stewart says he's looking forward to pushing himself physically and mentally when he defends his title on 26 May.
"For thrillseekers, it's actually really enjoyable and you can't get enough."
Regional heats for the NZ Chilli Champs are on at the moment.
"I advise anyone that's into their chillis to give one of the heats a go … you get to meet a bunch of like-minded fanatics."
