White Island Emergency procedure - Run Like Hell

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Part 6 23/02/07 - 24/02/07 Geo-thermic lands.

We detoured an hour and a half each way from Rotorua to Whakatane in order to nip across to White island, an active volcanic island 50km of the coast. We flew right over the island crater and then landed amongst the bubbling pools on one of the only small sections of hard stable ground. Our helicopter pilot and guide gave us strict instructions to follow his tracks. Surprisingly we were all given gas masks. I thought at first that this was a tourist gimmick and didn’t expect to use mine but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The sulphuric acidic gases were so strong they made our eyes water and burnt the back of our throats!

The whole area around Rotorua smells of sulphur. A pervasive smell of rotten eggs - and although varying in intensity, it can be very strong. The only possible advantage of this smell is never having to ‘blame it on the dog’. If anyone smells any rogue smells, you can just blame it on the egg smelling sulphur.

We decided on a relaxing afternoon at Hells Gate thermal spa aptly named by the playwright George Bernard Shaw who, as a known atheist was told he was heading through it! We walked around the area for an hour past various hot sulphourous pools with names like Sodom and Gomorrah, Devils Cauldron, steamy cliffs and the mud volcano with temperatures ranging from 38 to 145 degrees Celsius. The hottest waterfall in the southern hemisphere cascades water at the perfect temperature for a shower and was used by Maori men to wash the wounds of battle. After our walk, we had a spa package which started with a mud bath, followed by a sulphur water spa and finally an hour-long Maori massage. The acidic waters left our skin incredibly soft and we were warned not to wear any silver jewelry for at least 24 hours as the remnant sulphur on our skin could tarnish it. Jen’s silver earings tarnished when she finally put them back in 3 days later so we must have oozed sulphur for a long time after!

Our final day in Rotorua saw a glorious victory for moi in the mini-golf and Jerry, Jen and I rolling down hill in a giant inflatable ball in our best hamster impression. Another one of those famous New Zealand crazy activities - Zorbing. The max combined weight for a triple zorb (all 3 of us in the same ball) was 250kg so with a couple of little white lies (our combined weight was 262) we each entered the zorb and headed on down together. One of the great moments of zorbing is the entry technique where you literally have to take a running dive to make it through the small entry hole.

Jen expected to be black and blue with the potentially lethal elbows and knees of us 2 big men but we all remained relatively unscathed at the bottom, giggling in hysterics. It was the last of our planned unusual activities and we had a long day of driving ahead over the Auckland bridge and up to the Bay of Islands.

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Photos

Smokin'
White island

White Island
the volcano rises from the sea

No heli-pad here
Our chopper landing site amidst the bubbling ground

Essential equipment
The gas masks were no gimmick!!

Madame Cholet
Jen's best womble impression!

The very active landscape
Our guide's actual words were... "The emergency proceedure is to run like hell away from the crater"

Mud volcano
a much much smaller 'White island' in Hells Gate, Rotorua

Don't get the mud in your eyes!
in the mud bath at hells Gate spa

Zorbing
Another crazy New Zeland experience!!!

Comments

[Dancing Dave]

great pic
Nothing can beat a volcano in eruption or smoking merrily...great pic