All across the crater floor are humps of materiel, left by eruptions and landslides. The hot steam finds a way through these, creating fumaroles which deposit the sulphur and other compounds. The surface of these mounds is a thin crust, which we were continually warned not to walk on. Apparently a couple of weeks before a tourist ignored this and found himself ankle deep in very hot mud.
You can put your hand over this vent (which is close to the relatively stable path), and feel the heat; you can't get really close because the steam is scalding.
All this sulphur? Yes: White Island is a smelly place. It reeks of sulphur compounds. It is a bitter, acrid smell, though, quite distinct from the rotten eggs steam that sometimes hangs over Rotorua.
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We have so many pictures of this extraordinary place, it's hard to pick them out. (But you can see them all when we next meet up!)
There is very little life in these craters; until 2006, the entire crater was covered in thick, fine ash; the guides could walk from the landing to the far crater wall in bare feet. But then there was a significant eruption and now the surface is sharp, crumbly pumice.
The crater as a whole was three smaller craters, and you can see the collapsed walls from earlier eruptions, often marked by horizontal strata showing where lakes reached at various times. All over the crater are places where steam is escaping, active vents from the magma chamber about 3.5km below the surface. This was one of the biggest, at the bottom of part of the main wall of the crater.
The yellow is sulphur crystals, formed at 94.5ºC; that's how hot the steam is. The white is calcium sulphide (or possibly sulphate: a failure of note-taking there), the gypsum used in building.
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You go ashore in this RIB tender, in groups of nine. Two boat loads makes one group with a guide, and there were six boat loads, or 54 people on our trip.
You can see behind the tender the landing stage. On the far side are some ladders; you clamber up these onto the concrete jetty. A section is broken away and replaced by a fairly narrow iron bridge, with a good solid handhold. From the end of the jetty you clamber across about 30m of boulders to get ashore.
We had maybe a one metre swell in the bay and yet the guides and drivers handled it all immaculately. It's not an arrival for the faint-hearted!
As you see, everyone is wearing hard hats. It's a requirement of access to the island, together with gas masks. The volcano is constantly throwing out steam laden with acids, and can at any time eject lumps of rock. They hand the hats and masks out before you leave the main vessel, and take them back on return.
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Whakaari is the Maori name for the island, which is NZ's most active volcano. The boat anchors in this bay, and this view is the main crater.
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We went to Whakatane (pronounced fa-ka-tar-nee) to take the White Island tour. This is an active volcano about 50km off the coast. It is privately owned by a family trust, who only allow people with permits to land. The company we went with, White Island tours, administers the permits, and do allow a few other operators to land, notably via helicopter. Of course, we went by boat.
Before going on about the wonders of the volcano, we must praise this company. The entire operation, which has some serious safety and environmental challenges is very, very professionally run. The guides, food, cleanliness of the boat etc were all excellent. We were particularly interested to see their commitment to sustainable environmental management. This is a major thread through their literature, but shows in the mundane stuff too; in the tender coming back from the island, the guide saw a plastic bottle in the water and diverted the boat to pick it up.
They have also gone to some trouble to talk knowledgeably not only about the geology (a huge topic) and the sulphur mining history, but the Maori approach to the island. Top marks to the company for their approach. See www.whiteisland.co.nz for lots more info.
We left on their vessel PeeJay VI, at about 0930. Whakatane harbour has this very narrow entrance and quite a tidal limit on when it is navigable. Not surprisingly, it is also untenable in strong on-shore winds.
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This is the statue you could see on the rock in the last picture, and it commemorates Wairaka. She came with her father Torora, their family and a cargo of kumera, to this harbour in the large ocean going waka (canoe) Mataatua, about 800 years ago. By that time, there had been Maori settlers here for about 200 years, who had settled in a pa just inland (about where the town centre is now). Torora and the men went ashore to greet the local leaders, leaving the women in the canoe.
While the parleying was going on, the tide changed and the waka began to drift out to sea. Wairaka called out 'E! Kia whakatane au i ahau', which means 'let me act the part of a man.' She grabbed the steering paddle, which was forbidden (tapu) for women at that time, and brought the boat safely to shore. Thus the settlement got its name.
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The other end of the walk is one of the smallest lakes of those along the Rotorua/Taupo fault. We couldn't find a way to get down to the water, which, in any case is polluted by a toxic algae bloom.
This picture was actually taken from the road as we drove past on our way to Whakatane.
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The bush itself is lovely, and it's a gentle walk. This rata tree is at a brilliant stage; the long lianas start their lives high in the branches of the host tree and grow downwards, planting roots in the forest floor. Then the lianas thicken into wood, the stage you can see here. Gradually they grow round the host and it dies, leaving the hollow trunk of the mature rata.
This is the first stretch of bush where we have seen lots of self-seeded palms; further south they have been individual trees somewhat isolated and thus away from intense competition. Now the climate is getting milder and they are growing vigorously among the ferns and other trees.
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This fairly short track, originally known as Te Tahuna is very old. In the first quarter of the seventeenth century, chieftainess Hinehopu used it to travel between her lands at each lake. Less peacefully, in 1823 the warrior Hongi used it as portage for war canoes, enabling him to launch a surprise attack on Mokoia, the island off Rotorua. (He won, and the iwi of Mokoia were enslaved, an important step in the christianising of the Maori of the area.)
Along the track (actually on the main road, though the track itself runs through the bush) is this large matai tree. The story goes that Hinehopu was hidden under this tree by her mother when she was small, and so successfully evaded her enemies. This makes the tree about 400 years old. Later, she met Pikiao II under the tree; she married him and their union gave rise to Ngati Pikiao tribe, who agreed that the tree is sacred.
The tree is said to influence the weather in favour of the traveller who performs a specific ceremony there. We don't know the form, but said the words in hope, given the poor weather we've seen. Actually, until the time of writing (Saturday, five days later) it has worked quite well, giving us a brief respite from the rain. Now it's back with a vengeance: obviously our travels have gone on long enough for the tree's protection to wear thin.
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Through a complicated family tree, Beryl, Pip's mother, had recently been contacted by Annette, the wife of her cousin Lindsay. (We think this makes him Pip's first cousin.) Pip had an address for them but not a phone number, so we drove round Selwyn Heights looking for them.
Ta dah! As we walked up their drive, Lindsay was in their yard preparing their van for a few days away fishing. We were just in time.
It was great to piece together some elements of the jigsaw and hear stories of the family. As Lindsay and Annette were about to go away, they donated some potatoes, tomatoes and the yellowest lemons to Puff's stores. All very gratefully received: many thanks, guys!
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24/02/2008
We were lucky: a craft market was held in Rotorua today, despite the rain, and we found two sources of treasure.
Bob Collins worked as a Forest Ranger, based in Minginui with a patch including Whirinaki for many, many years up till 1987. In the course of those years he collected many burrs and sections of the trees as they were felled, rescuing them from the saw mills that were then active. After retirement he took up wood turning, using the thousands of pieces of wood from those wonderful trees to make bowls. These two are mostly made from rimu.
We are very sad for the trees that were felled, but glad that this wood, rather than simply being burnt (as it otherwise would have been) has been turned into beautiful and useful pieces.
Our other taonga (treasure) was found at the stall of Iris Herewini, who sells pounamu (greenstone), bone and paua jewellery made by relatives. Both these are made by her brother-in-law, who lives in Hokatika. We had promised ourselves pounamu pieces as part of this trip and had looked at so many (including in Hokatika), but these were the ones that spoke to us.
Both are made of kahurangi (cloak of the sky) greenstone, which takes its meaning from the cloud shapes within it.
Iris was great to meet and talk with. She told us so much about the greenstone and took so much time to make sure these were the right pieces for each of us, had the right cords on, were set at the right length and so on. We spent a very happy hour talking with her, and thank her again for her friendship.
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This is the splendid Anglican building, built in the wood framed, clean style that is a hallmark of the older European buildings in the town. Inside it is amazing fusion of Maori and European spiritual art; the pillars, pews and beams are a riot of Maori carving with tiki and taniwha. The stained glass is exceptional, together with a magnificent engraving of Jesus walking on Galilee, positioned such that he appears to be walking on Lake Rotorua. (Photos are forbidden inside the church).
St Faith's faces a large marae in a lovely complex of buildings right on the water front. We weren't sure it was acceptable to photograph the marae without permission so we will wait for an opportunity when we know it is acceptable.
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