White Island lies in the Pacific about 20kms from Whakatane on the east coast of North Island. It is the most active volcano in NZ - and they let you wander around on it! We took a boat trip lasting about one and half hours to get there and were escorted around by a guide. This was after being issued with hard hats and gas masks! The hard hats had to stay on our heads all the time, but we thought the gas masks were for emergencies only until we got ten minutes into the two hour tour. The Sulfur Dioxide and Hydrogen Chloride gas were choking - so we wore them most of the time. So macho!We got to see funeroles and bubbling mud pools. The crater lake was very low but was full only two years ago. We declined to swim in Sharks Bay - named by the miners who used to live in the island producing sulfur from the rocks..
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| Ruins of the Sulphur Works |
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