Moonscapes and Seascapes

White Island off the coast of Whakatane is an active marine volcano. Not your ideal holiday spot then. But nearby Ohope Beach has surf, sand, bush, a great view of the island … and is beautifully stable underfoot

Words Sue Hoffart  Photographs Tessa Chrisp

UP CLOSE, WHITE ISLAND’S CRATER LAKE is a rather inviting, milky shade of green. Drifts of steam float and flow prettily above the surface, casting streaky shadows on the flat expanse of rainwater and gas. But no one is tempted to dip a toe in. Helicopter pilot and guide Robert Fleming has warned us the lake is a blistering 55ºC and as toxic as battery acid. Robert has also pointed out the potential dangers of accidentally stepping into a scorching vent or sliding on the viciously slippery grey muck that covers rocks on the trek to the lake. And he is the first to slap a gas mask over his face as a burst of foul-smelling air strikes at head height, startling nostrils with a strange tingling sensation.

“The moment you get complacent or go turning a blind eye is the moment you’re in the greatest danger,” he tells his six-strong tour group. Which is, of course, part of the thrill. There is something irresistible about the idea of traipsing over a volatile, volcanic island in an ugly gas mask and fluorescent orange helmet, knowing the ground could give way at any time. We’ll probably be fine. But we might not. In 1914 a landslide killed a gang of 10 sulphur miners. A crater wall collapsed and the resulting lahar buried the men who had been living and working at the eastern end of the island. Their bodies were never recovered but the rusted, skeletal remains of the sulphur factory still stand.

The last decent rumble, in July 2000, hurled ash, rock and great hunks of pumice all over the area frequented by thousands of tourists who visit New Zealand’s only live marine volcano each year. Fortunately, that eruption occurred in the middle of the night when the day trippers and documentary makers, scientists, divers and pleasure boaters were out of harm’s way. Privately-owned White Island (Whakaari) juts out of the Pacific Ocean 48km offshore from Whakatane in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. It has been simmering away for more than 100,000 years and can still produce thousands of tonnes of toxic gas in a day. The plumes of gas and ash are visible from the mainland and previous eruptions have scattered debris as far inland as Rotorua.

In preparation for our 20-minute helicopter flight we don harness-style flotation devices and run through safety drills in the carpark outside tiny Whakatane Airport. Once airborne, Robert’s voice cuts above the vibrating hum of the craft to indicate islands inhabited by tuatara and one that movie star Sylvester Stallone tried to buy. Clouds strung to the west of the approaching volcano are not your average fluffy cumulus or stratus, he explains, but a toxic mix of water vapour and sulphur dioxide, hydrogen chloride and several other nasties. As we draw closer, a sulphuric stench fills the cockpit and Robert carefully steers around the poisonous cloud to circle the island. Below, a high ridge is littered with the blackened spines of trees that were killed by acidic discharge. Further around, hardy ice plants, flaxes and a healthy pohutukawa forest stand testament to nature’s tenacity.

Six hundred metres above sea level, it is easy to spot schools of blue mau mau and the commercial fishing boats that trail their flashing iridescence. Robert has watched giant sea turtles and flying fish, pods of rare whales and albatross on his countless runs to and from the island. He has also witnessed a Chevrolet Tahoe vehicle dangling below the belly of a Russian helicopter so General Motors could film a television advertisement on the volcanic surface.

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