Stinking Great Volcano

Stinking Great Volcano
Whakatane, New Zealand

Whakatane, New Zealand

Whakatane is the home to the White Island volcano, well it is the closest port to get to the submarine volcano at least. Whakatane is an odd town, with a pretty big university and not much else. The only campsite in town is super overpriced, with a super rude owner who seeminly hates all tourists and a selection of crazy crazy long term residents. Seriously one morning I got stuck in the shower block with a loonatic who told me that drug dealers had stolen her house and she was living in her car on the campsite and then in the kitchen we got stuck talking to some old lady who was talking gibberish and what sense we could make from her ramblings seemed to suggest that she was a time traveller?! Honestly this place was crazy. Thankfully our only plan was to head over to White Island and then escape.

Gold star for anyone who can guess who gave White Island it’s name, yup you guessed it Captain James Cook for a change. However what our intrepid discoverer of all lands didn’t discover is that White Island was not just a mountain in a cloud of white steam it was actually a very active sulphur volcano. White Island is NZ’s only marine volcano and is possibly the most accessible of its type in the world. We took the boat to the island, but the quicker and more pricey method is to go there by helicopter. The boat was pretty dire, whilst it was super luxurious and comfortable, it was so rough we all just sat staring at the horizon willing the boat to hit dry land.

White island is an active volcano and has constant steaming and boiling mud, it is on a constanrt alert of 1-2 out of 5 and last erupted in August 2013. Walking around an active marine volcano is a pretty terrifying experience as whilst it is completely rigged up for any seismic activity to be detectedit could erupt at any minute realistically. As this is a sulphur volcano we were all issued with gas masks to make it easier to breath and were given a handful of boiled sweets to stop our throats getting dried out.

We all set off following the guide laughing and joking and within about 2 minutes we had all developed one of those annoying coughs that you just can’t clear and were desperately sucking on sweets and wearing our gas masks for reasons other than a cool selfie!

Attempts to mine the sulphur at White Island commenced in the 1880’s and continued until 1912 when an eruption caused a fatal mud slide killing all 12 miners working on the Island. The sole survivor of this mud slide was Peter The Great, the Island cat. The happy ending to this story is that Peter lived to a ripe old age and fathered many many kittens in Opotiki.

Living as a miner on White Island was a treacherous affair as the fumes from the sulphur dissolved not only their clothes but also the enamel on their teeth. Even the tour guides that lead the groups to the island now have to wear polyester t-shirts as cotton just disintegrates!

All in all our visit to White island was just awesome, what an experience walking around an active volcano wearing just a gas mask and hard hat for safety!

The journey home was pretty rough but thankfully everyone managed to hold on to their delicious gourmet packed lunches.

Time to get out of this mad town and head to Lake Taupo, the location of the location of the most violent volcanic eruption in the world in the last 5,000 years hmmm I am seeing a theme here!

Boom, lets go.