We did a day trip to White Island, NZs most active volcano, on a perfect day, weather wise. The island lies about 50km off the coast and it takes about 2 ½ hours to get there but longer if there is marine wildlife about (as there often is).
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The boat ride was really pleasant and it was a perfect day to be on the water. We saw pods of dolphins both on the way out and back, and a bait ball of herring being chased by Kawhai (fish) so the journey took longer than usual as we stopped to watch.
White Island is privately owned by an Auckland family but was originally sold by the Maori to the Europeans in the 1830s for two hogshead of rum. It’s seems to be a bit of a cash cow now, with money from every person taken there going to the family but the good thing about it being privately owned is that the public has greater access and is allowed to be guided relatively freely around the crater.
It also gets quite rough out there with around 12m swells and, as a result, the boats can only land people on about 150 days per year. From the mainland, White Island doesn’t look much and it wasn't steaming or smoking like I remember it used to but once you got there and landed, it was pretty obvious that there was a whole heap of activity going on under the ground and the last major eruption was in 2000.
Only 321m of White Island is above sea level, with the remaining 760m sitting below the sea, covering an area of 16x18km. Its not until you get close that you see an eruption (in 1914) had clean blown the side out of the crater.
A condition of issuing a landing permit to visitors is that all visitors must be issued with a hard hat (fat lot of good that will do for you in an eruption!) and a gas mask. The latter was actually quite useful as the fumes were pretty acrid at times. They might look funny but at least the colour of the helmet and mask match!
We spent about two hours walking around the crater in a lunar-like landscape. The ground was very very warm underfoot and the noise of steam hissing out of fumaroles, mud bubbling and gas under pressure screaming out of vents made it a very raw and real experience.
We walked right among the steaming fumaroles,
through the hot throat-stinging steam,
and vibrant yellow sulphur crystals
and looked into pools of bubbling mud when the steam allowed
but at times you just had to shut your eyes and turn or walk away.
We’d all signed indemnity forms and the guides warned us not to stray off the beaten track but it was very much up to us to keep away from any vents which at times was difficult as they were everywhere! The one behind us in the below made a horrendous noise. Something was under a whole lot of pressure!
NZs volcanoes are part of the pacific ring of fire that runs from the San Andreas fault line in California, through Easter Island, NZ, Indonesia, Japan, the Aleutian Archipelago and back to California. The difference with NZ is that the geothermal activity is hydrothermal, significantly more explosive and powerful. Someone likened mixing magma and lakes as being similar to sticking an intensely hot frying pan under the tap.
This was the best vent and one that had only opened up a few months ago. It was absolutely pumping out the steam and the heat from it certainly made everyone keep their distance. It looked and sounded rather scary and you could hear the bubbling mud deep down inside.
This shot, with the people in it, gives it some scale.
Here is what it looked like in real life. You can see the mud spurting up from the steam and you can just see the big new vent (that's what is making that awful noise) in the right of the video.
The crater lake itself can be a multitude of colours but the day we visited it was a fairly dull green. With a pH of -0.1 and a temperature of 70 degrees C you wouldn’t last long if you fell in. I was struggling with the steam and sulphur fumes and shortly after stuck on my gas mask.
The sulphur crystallised into some wonderful colours and this stream trickled down into the sea
causing the water near the shoreline to turn a light blue and it was noxious so any fish that happened to swim in it died. There were quite a few washed up dead on the beach and being picked at by gulls. One of the crew members fell in but he seemed OK (apart from having the piss ripped out of him by his crew members for the rest of the journey, poor chap).
This is the remains of an old sulphur factory, the second one that has been built on the island. The first one was swept away in the 1914 eruption and no traces of the buildings were ever found.
Some of the machinery remains
but the buildings, made out of reinforced concrete (twisted and shattered) and Canadian pine (absolutely smashed to pieces), were wrecked in another eruption in 1933 that saw the end to any mining work done on the island. Apparently only a cat survived the second eruption.
As we motored away we got a different view of the island but you can imagine what it would have been like had the walls not been blown out.
There are loads of fish, particularly some sizable kingfish although fishermen have reported their lead weights melting from the underwater vents. There were also flying fish off the point. Has anyone any idea how difficult it is to photograph these things? They flit up, a flash of silver and blue in amongst a whole mass of blue sea and move so quickly that you don’t know where to focus the camera. Euan has the patience of a saint and gave it a damn good try and below was the best he got. They use their tails as a rudder and propeller and can travel for 100s of metres at a time.
Then we came across a massive pod of dolphins. There were over 100 of them and they surrounded the boat from all sides.
There was a collective gasp from everyone watching as seven of them zoomed out of the water at the same time but its difficult to watch and take photos. They’re so quick and you have to have the camera glued to your face, which dilutes the experience somewhat, so we didn’t quite get the perfect shot.
We suddenly had 100s of dolphin photos to join the 100s of steamy, fumaroles photos!
The waves were heading straight into the Whakatane river mouth when we got back and the captain had to hold back then surf the launch into the mouth on a large wave and zoom past the big rocks.
This is the statue of Wairaka, otherwise known as the lady on the rock, at the entrance of the river mouth. There is an old Maori myth behind Wairaka but I won't go into it here.
White Island is a pretty unique place and we’d highly recommend (while taking a big gulp at the price) visiting if you can. It really is a superb experience.
View Larger Map
The boat ride was really pleasant and it was a perfect day to be on the water. We saw pods of dolphins both on the way out and back, and a bait ball of herring being chased by Kawhai (fish) so the journey took longer than usual as we stopped to watch.
White Island is privately owned by an Auckland family but was originally sold by the Maori to the Europeans in the 1830s for two hogshead of rum. It’s seems to be a bit of a cash cow now, with money from every person taken there going to the family but the good thing about it being privately owned is that the public has greater access and is allowed to be guided relatively freely around the crater.
It also gets quite rough out there with around 12m swells and, as a result, the boats can only land people on about 150 days per year. From the mainland, White Island doesn’t look much and it wasn't steaming or smoking like I remember it used to but once you got there and landed, it was pretty obvious that there was a whole heap of activity going on under the ground and the last major eruption was in 2000.
Only 321m of White Island is above sea level, with the remaining 760m sitting below the sea, covering an area of 16x18km. Its not until you get close that you see an eruption (in 1914) had clean blown the side out of the crater.
A condition of issuing a landing permit to visitors is that all visitors must be issued with a hard hat (fat lot of good that will do for you in an eruption!) and a gas mask. The latter was actually quite useful as the fumes were pretty acrid at times. They might look funny but at least the colour of the helmet and mask match!
We spent about two hours walking around the crater in a lunar-like landscape. The ground was very very warm underfoot and the noise of steam hissing out of fumaroles, mud bubbling and gas under pressure screaming out of vents made it a very raw and real experience.
We walked right among the steaming fumaroles,
through the hot throat-stinging steam,
and vibrant yellow sulphur crystals
and looked into pools of bubbling mud when the steam allowed
but at times you just had to shut your eyes and turn or walk away.
We’d all signed indemnity forms and the guides warned us not to stray off the beaten track but it was very much up to us to keep away from any vents which at times was difficult as they were everywhere! The one behind us in the below made a horrendous noise. Something was under a whole lot of pressure!
NZs volcanoes are part of the pacific ring of fire that runs from the San Andreas fault line in California, through Easter Island, NZ, Indonesia, Japan, the Aleutian Archipelago and back to California. The difference with NZ is that the geothermal activity is hydrothermal, significantly more explosive and powerful. Someone likened mixing magma and lakes as being similar to sticking an intensely hot frying pan under the tap.
This was the best vent and one that had only opened up a few months ago. It was absolutely pumping out the steam and the heat from it certainly made everyone keep their distance. It looked and sounded rather scary and you could hear the bubbling mud deep down inside.
This shot, with the people in it, gives it some scale.
Here is what it looked like in real life. You can see the mud spurting up from the steam and you can just see the big new vent (that's what is making that awful noise) in the right of the video.
The crater lake itself can be a multitude of colours but the day we visited it was a fairly dull green. With a pH of -0.1 and a temperature of 70 degrees C you wouldn’t last long if you fell in. I was struggling with the steam and sulphur fumes and shortly after stuck on my gas mask.
The sulphur crystallised into some wonderful colours and this stream trickled down into the sea
causing the water near the shoreline to turn a light blue and it was noxious so any fish that happened to swim in it died. There were quite a few washed up dead on the beach and being picked at by gulls. One of the crew members fell in but he seemed OK (apart from having the piss ripped out of him by his crew members for the rest of the journey, poor chap).
This is the remains of an old sulphur factory, the second one that has been built on the island. The first one was swept away in the 1914 eruption and no traces of the buildings were ever found.
Some of the machinery remains
but the buildings, made out of reinforced concrete (twisted and shattered) and Canadian pine (absolutely smashed to pieces), were wrecked in another eruption in 1933 that saw the end to any mining work done on the island. Apparently only a cat survived the second eruption.
As we motored away we got a different view of the island but you can imagine what it would have been like had the walls not been blown out.
There are loads of fish, particularly some sizable kingfish although fishermen have reported their lead weights melting from the underwater vents. There were also flying fish off the point. Has anyone any idea how difficult it is to photograph these things? They flit up, a flash of silver and blue in amongst a whole mass of blue sea and move so quickly that you don’t know where to focus the camera. Euan has the patience of a saint and gave it a damn good try and below was the best he got. They use their tails as a rudder and propeller and can travel for 100s of metres at a time.
Then we came across a massive pod of dolphins. There were over 100 of them and they surrounded the boat from all sides.
There was a collective gasp from everyone watching as seven of them zoomed out of the water at the same time but its difficult to watch and take photos. They’re so quick and you have to have the camera glued to your face, which dilutes the experience somewhat, so we didn’t quite get the perfect shot.
We suddenly had 100s of dolphin photos to join the 100s of steamy, fumaroles photos!
The waves were heading straight into the Whakatane river mouth when we got back and the captain had to hold back then surf the launch into the mouth on a large wave and zoom past the big rocks.
This is the statue of Wairaka, otherwise known as the lady on the rock, at the entrance of the river mouth. There is an old Maori myth behind Wairaka but I won't go into it here.
White Island is a pretty unique place and we’d highly recommend (while taking a big gulp at the price) visiting if you can. It really is a superb experience.
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