- General information
- Volcano history
- White Island for tourists
White Island is an active New Zealand volcanic island (diameter - 2 km; the highest point is at around 321 m). Its administrative affiliation is the Bay of Plenty region.
General information
The location of White Island, represented as the top of an active stratovolcano (its top is covered with a sulfur crust; the volcano has existed for about 2 million years), is Plenty Bay (it is 50 km away from Severny Island). It is worth noting that most of the volcano is hidden under water (where it reaches 1600 meters in height).
White Island has two stratovolcanoes. The main crater appeared in prehistoric times when three sub-craters collapsed. The subcrater in the east was formed due to the former (today it has secondary thermal springs). The subcrater in the center is the place where fumaroles are concentrated. As for the sub-crater in the west, it allows you to follow the results of modern volcanic activity on the island. The nearest settlements are Tauranga and Wakatane.
Volcano history
Before the Europeans discovered White Island, the indigenous Maori people were familiar with the island. They caught birds here, and also carried out the extraction of sulfur (the Maori used it to fertilize the land).
The Maori knew about the dangerous neighborhood, they called it "an amazing volcano" - "Te Puia o Fakaari". The island got its modern name thanks to James Cook (British traveler). Cook named the island White because on the opening day (1769) he saw white steam swirling over it (Cook, having swam close to the island, did not realize that there was a volcano in front of him due to the absence of its volcanic activity). The first European to land on the island was named Henry Williams (1826). As for the first map of the island, it was created by Edwin Davey (1866).
It is believed that in the 1830s Philip Tapsella bought the island from the Maori. But the recognition of this deal by the New Zealand government took place only in 1867 - then the daughter and son of Tapsell became the owners of White Island, but they quickly sold the island. In 1885, sulfur began to be mined on an industrial scale on the island, but since a year later the Tarawera volcano “activated” on the North Island, the process of sulfur production was suspended. White Island was abandoned due to the risk of a local volcanic eruption. Work resumed in 1898-1901 and 1913-1914. But in 1914, a large-scale natural disaster caused the collapse of the edge of the crater in the west, killing people and all existing buildings. Sulfur mining was resumed in 1923 until 1933.
In 1936, the island was acquired by George Raymond Battle. Despite the fact that in 1953 the government decided to buy the island from him, he refused this offer and declared it a private reserve. However, the island was open to travelers. And in 1995, those wishing to visit the island were obliged to obtain prior permission for this (issued by authorized tour operators).
Currently White Island is a landscape reserve. Apart from the gannet colonies nesting here, the island is uninhabited. If we talk about the last eruption, then it is dated 2012-2013 (it caused the formation of a new cone and the drying up of the acid crater lake, which delighted photographers with bright shades of yellow and orange).
White Island for tourists
The Isle of White Island is a haunted active volcano and is constantly being studied by volcanologists. In addition, the island is open to tourist groups. They are delivered here in 2 ways: by boat, by water; by helicopter, by air (helicopter tours are not cheap - they cost about $ 5,000; prices do not scare many travelers - flights here are organized 2-3 times a day).
Landing on the island involves a tour of its unique surface. The island greets tourists with fantastic landscapes resembling the surface of the Moon or Mars, and hissing jets of sulfur dioxide (they rise into the sky from different points of the island), as well as the remains of a factory and buildings in which sulfur miners lived. The main advantage for travelers is that they do not have to climb high into the mountains to see the crater of the volcano. But on their way there will be mud holes in the ground (as the guides say, they tend to regularly change their place of deployment), so it is important to follow the guide, not turning anywhere without permission.
Those wishing to get to the crater are given protective ammunition in the form of helmets and respirators - without them, walking along the crater will become impossible, since sulfur geysers are everywhere (they cause difficulty breathing and the appearance of cuts in the eyes).
