White Island Tour

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Plenty » Whakatane
February 11th 2008

Published: February 24th 2008

Today was to be my tour of the island that the Maori people call Whakaari (White Island to you and me), approximately 29 miles North into the Pacific Ocean from Whakatane. I went to bed the night before with a heavy cloud cover in Whakatane, thinking that once we got to the island the following morning (and the tour for the following morning was confirmed at 7pm the night before, taking weather in... Read Full Entry

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Doug Gschwind

Welcome to my travel blog. Thus far, I have shared a few of my recent trips, some highlights below : 1) Japan, Sep 2014. With the allure of a very foreign culture to me, non-English speaking, Hiroshima, Tokyo, Shinkansen (bullet trains), Tsukiji fish market, and Sumo wrestling, it was time for a two week break from life and traveled to Japan for the second half of September. Wow, what an amazing place, just loved every minute I spent there exploring. 2) On assignment in Berkeley, CA (Sep 2008 - Apr 2009). I explored the San Francisco Bay area in some detail during the weekends I was there ... full info

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More small Fumaroles

Have Fumarole, will vent.

Lots of venting

The dark area in the lower right corner of the photo is boiling water. Lots of yellow above it indicating sustained venting and Sulfur accumulation.

More venting

Probably wouldn't recommend standing over top of these and inhaling deeply.

I am on White Island!

Our tour guide offered to take this shot of me. Note the cavalier wearing of the gas mask. Oh, and the chin strap on the hard hat? Optional. The chin strap did come in handy when getting on/off the boat though. Didn't want to pull a Doug impersonating Chevy Chase impersonating Gerald Ford falling down.

Huge Vent

Different perspective of the previous photo, without me blocking any of the picture.

Looking back to point of entry on island

Looking opposite direction as that which we were moving.

More Lunar Landscape

The green area had to be due to some hot/warm water moving through that area, possibly on a regular basis.

More Lunar Landscape

Note the area of lighter colored rock, supposedly higher in temperature than the surrounding areas and under greater pressure. We didn't attempt to touch that rock though.

Most active Fumarole

The most active action on the island, yet still from a distance.

Most active Fumarole

Another perspective.

Most active Fumarole

Yet another perspective.

Crater/Caldera is that way

Getting fairly close to the crater/caldera now. Just a couple of minutes walk from here ...

Crater/Caldera!

The pH of this water is appearantly around -0.5, and ranges in temperature from 30 degrees Celcius to 70 degrees Celcius.

Crater/Caldera!

Another perspective.

Crater/Caldera!

Yet another perspective.

Me again

Making another large fashion statement for future active marine volcano explorers ...

Looking Back

There is another Fumarole with a large opening that is in the middle foreground of this picture. My camera was failing for a little bit around this time, so lost the opportunity for a close up shot.

Crater/Caldera!

Yet another perspective. On the other side of that mound is a secondary crater, that is much smaller and not as interesting.

Crater/Caldera!

Yet another perspective, moving to lower ground and away from the crater.

More Lunar Landscape

Just kind of other worldly looking terrain.

View across secondary crater to primary

Can still see the primary caldera from the secondary crater. Appearantly, the secondary crater for some time made quite a racket of noise, until a Lahar happened on the island and the slide filled in the secondary crater, silencing it ... for now.

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