Take A Walk On The Wild Side

by Sonia Ellem aka EarthGipsy

Photo: EarthGipsyImages

Test your senses; bright yellows, pungeant smells that make your nose crinkle in disgust and force you to reach for your gas mask. Constant hissing and burping. Softly floating ash. Loud rumblings from the bowels of the earth.

It’s pretty scary stuff!

The only live marine volcano and the largest volcanic structure in NZ…...White Island is 70% undersea! She floats 48 kms out, in the beautiful Bay of Plenty.

About 150,000 years old and built by continuous volcanic activity. Today, this old girl’s activity is constantly monitored by the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (IGNS). When we visited the IGNS helicopter flew in and landed. The doors flung out and people in strange suits exploded from within. They ran to their places on top of the crater and started to work, concentrating hard on their tasks. We watched, intently, for about an hour. Their concentration was so intense, I doubt they even knew we were there. They performed with precision – it’s the closest I’ll ever come to a moon landing!

The island is currently on a level 1 alert; she’s always active and constantly spewing forth steam, sulphur and lots of other volcanic “stuff”. At her heart, she has a deep, steaming lake. She takes pride of place at the tip of NZs “chain of fire”; a 250 km long chain of highly active volcano’s extending from her (White Island), to Ruapehu in the centre of the north Island.

A walk on her shores is indeed a walk on the wild side.

Photo: EarthGipsyImages

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Tags:

adventure, island, new zealand, nz, sulphur, thermal, travel, trravel writing, volcano and writing