This little stream shows up the colours deposited by oxides and other compounds as it runs from a fumarole on the crater floor towards the sea. A magic carpet.
Next to it runs another little stream that is almost clear of colour; its source is much higher in the crater wall and it is not filled with material from fumaroles and upswellings directly above the magma chamber.
Both the streams are acidic, however, with a pH of 2 or 3, about the same as your stomach. You wouldn't want to drink it.
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This is the mud in one spot in the crater, part of a larger mud pool that is constantly in motion, and the whole crater of mud is changing shape almost daily. We saw mud pools at Orakei Korako and in Rotorua but because of the drought they were pretty dry. Here on Whakaari not only is there plenty of rain, but steam feeds these pools from below.
White Island is a place to teach you that the rocks themselves are alive, that all of the environment is dynamic, and that the equilibrium of terra firma is pretty fragile. The colours, smells and shapes here are all in flux, and the great majority of them are chemical, created by minerals and water, rather than the algae and other life-forms that visibly push change in most places.
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This picture gives some idea of the scale of the place. The crater lake is hidden behind rocks against the back wall. There is a little man on the track (a very committed photographer, closely watched by a patient guide).
This photo is taken from the highest spot on the crater floor, about a third of the way from the back wall to the landing place.
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At the back of the crater floor is a smaller crater. This was formed by a major explosion in 1976, which left a cone about 120m deep. This gradually got filled up by rubble (both ejecta and stuff washed off the crater walls by rain), ash and smaller stones. Inevitably the blocked vent exploded again.
There were then heavy rains in 2000 which left a small puddle over the vent. This was expected to disappear. Instead, it has become a permanent feature, inasmuch as anything is permanent here. The lake is fed by steam coming out of the vent which condenses on contact with the water. From the surface, water is lost in steam or ordinary evaporation, but re-fed by rain water.
The lake is not salt, but has a pH of -0.5. That's serious acid, of the sulphuric and hydrochloric variety. The day we were there it was still, but sometimes it is belching steam which is very unpleasant to breathe. Certainly this was an area where the gas masks came in handy.
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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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