Thursday - an active volcano

Today was the long awaited visit to White Island, an active volcano 49km off the coast of NZ. We, and 58 other people, arrived at the office at 8.45am, then boarded our boat at 9.15.

First obstacle was the bar at the harbour mouth, a very tight channel between rocks at the outflow of a river. After that we had an hour and a half through a fairly large swell out to the island.

After arriving the inflatable was launched to see if a landing was possible.  The problem was that the normal wharf had been badly damaged in the recent tropical storm.  After looking at, and trying, a few possibilities the crew decided we needed to wait another hour or so until the wind and the swell had died down.

We circumnavigated the island, seeing a school of blue flounder feeding as we went. We were given our lunch boxes as well whilst we waited.

We also got the chance to see some of the other geological formations round the island, all left by previous volcanic action. The rocks were banded in colours, showing sulphurs, iron oxides and ash among other layers.

Eventually the seas had calmed enough to attempt a landing on the beach. This involved two people in wet suits swimming in the water, and two more up to their waists in the surf, assisting the boat as it took us all to the shore in groups of four or six.

We toured the island in three groups. Our group was ably led by Alaister. We all had hard hats and gas masks and the sulphur fumes were so strong we needed the latter quite regularly. This was a bed of pure sulphur, sitting at a temperature of 97 degrees C.

After skirting more sulphur and dangerous layers of sinter we finally had a sight into the main crater. It contained a large lake, green and yellow in colour, bubbling and steaming in the sun. Apparently Aliaster has seen it red and blue on other occasions. It was huge and awesome!

Steam was coming out of numerous vents on the other side of the crater. Whilst we were touring we saw two helicopters land with more groups of tourists, but the area was so large that you couldn't see them after a few moments.

Further round on the island were pools of bubbling mud.

Across the old crater we could see the side walls containing more colourful rock. The two small squares at the top of the cliff are cameras used to monitor activity in the volcano, powered by solar panels.

I said the gas masks were necessary!

Near the beach on which we had landed was the remains of an old sulphur factory. It only operated for 10 years before it became financially uneconomical, and since then the atmosphere on the island has steadily destroyed all the equipment left behind.

Boarding the main boat for the return trip was much easier. The tide had come in further, meaning the inflatable could now approach the remants of the old wharf, and the crew had rigged up a plank to cross from one section to another.

On the way back to the mainland we came across a couple of pods of dolphins who enjoyed playing in the bow wave of the boat. We were told pod sizes of 20 to 30 dolphins are common, but sometimes you can get a super pod of over 1000 dolphins.

 Back on land after a round trip of just over seven hours we said thank you and farewell to the crew before driving back to Rotorua.  

We are back in the same lovely motel we used two nights ago, but Fiona, the new owner, has upgraded us to a large two bedroom apartment in the hope we will get less road noise.  And we have an oven, so have just made and cooked pizzas!