Wednesday, December 13, 2006
White Island
Monday December 11
I guess I haven't had enough of live volcanoes yet, as when I heard there was a live one just off the coast near Mount Maunganui, where I was staying, I just had to book myself a trip out there. This involved me renting a car (a manual one no less - aren't you all glad I'm on the other side of the world now???), driving to Whakatane, and getting on a boat out to White Island which is an active marine volcano.
White Island is a 150,000 to 200,000 year old volcano - a baby really. It was named White Island by Captain Cook, the first European to sight the island. This was in 1769 and as he noted in the Endeavour's log book,“We called it White for as such it always appeared to us”. Cook, however, did not come close enough to realise it was a volcano. In the early 1900's it was mined for sulphur and there are ruins of the factory still on the island. It's a bit inhospitable for people to stay there for a long time though, even the clothing would only last a couple of months at the most due to the amount of sulphur in the atmosphere. It last erupted in 2000, and currently gets about 6-8 earthquakes per day and it's landscape is constantly changing. The tour guide kept mentioning that sulphur vents were constantly appearing and disappearing in various places, temperatures and acidities of streams are changing from week to week.
White Island from the boat on approach
The boat we went on, the "PeeJay V"
The main crater from a distance and close up - you can see how much steam was coming out from the crater lake which apparently has an acidity of -0.3 (was unaware the ph scale went below zero???)
This is the view from the crater out to see. It is thought that previous eruptions blasted gaps in the side of the crater, which is lucky as that provided safe places for boats to berth near the island and to allow us to get on and have a looksee.
All in all it was a very good, interesting trip and I picked a helluva day for it. I'd been in Mount Maunganui since Friday. Saturday and Sunday were nice days but not really beach days. Monday was definitely a beach day but I wasn't able to take advantage.
Just for Kat, here are the meerkats that welcomed us into the hostel in the Mount. I still haven't got that particular tattoo, but I think these would be a pretty good model, don't ya think??
I guess I haven't had enough of live volcanoes yet, as when I heard there was a live one just off the coast near Mount Maunganui, where I was staying, I just had to book myself a trip out there. This involved me renting a car (a manual one no less - aren't you all glad I'm on the other side of the world now???), driving to Whakatane, and getting on a boat out to White Island which is an active marine volcano.
White Island is a 150,000 to 200,000 year old volcano - a baby really. It was named White Island by Captain Cook, the first European to sight the island. This was in 1769 and as he noted in the Endeavour's log book,“We called it White for as such it always appeared to us”. Cook, however, did not come close enough to realise it was a volcano. In the early 1900's it was mined for sulphur and there are ruins of the factory still on the island. It's a bit inhospitable for people to stay there for a long time though, even the clothing would only last a couple of months at the most due to the amount of sulphur in the atmosphere. It last erupted in 2000, and currently gets about 6-8 earthquakes per day and it's landscape is constantly changing. The tour guide kept mentioning that sulphur vents were constantly appearing and disappearing in various places, temperatures and acidities of streams are changing from week to week.
White Island from the boat on approach
Me in front of a steam vent complete with hard hat and gas mask. This was at the beginning of the tour. The sulphur was quite intense as we got closer to the main crater and I was wearing the gas mask the whole time. The company has to provide hard hats and gas masks as part of it's permit to operate on the island.
The boat we went on, the "PeeJay V"
The main crater from a distance and close up - you can see how much steam was coming out from the crater lake which apparently has an acidity of -0.3 (was unaware the ph scale went below zero???)
This is the view from the crater out to see. It is thought that previous eruptions blasted gaps in the side of the crater, which is lucky as that provided safe places for boats to berth near the island and to allow us to get on and have a looksee.All in all it was a very good, interesting trip and I picked a helluva day for it. I'd been in Mount Maunganui since Friday. Saturday and Sunday were nice days but not really beach days. Monday was definitely a beach day but I wasn't able to take advantage.
Just for Kat, here are the meerkats that welcomed us into the hostel in the Mount. I still haven't got that particular tattoo, but I think these would be a pretty good model, don't ya think??
# posted by Sue Lambert @ 6:32 PM 
