Wonders of the World
That most people will never see. Whakaari White Island
In 2019 an ocean volcano, called Whakaari - White Island in New Zealand erupted killing several people instantly. More died from terrible burns afterwards. It was a terrible tragedy. Most Kiwis have never been there. As a consequence of the eruption, it may never be visited by tourists again.
Stories were told about the lives of the victims of this event and it seems an appropriate spot to share this song from my Spotify #Top500 songs playlist that I put together to accompany my autobiography.
It is a reminder that we only live once and it is important to make the most of the opportunities we have.
About 10 years earlier, I had the privilege of visiting the island. It had been on my bucket list, and I took the opportunity on one of our long weekends.
When I arrived on the island, I had to sign a consent form, saying that I understood I was on an active volcano that was highly dangerous. I was given goggles, a safety helmet and a gas mask. I wanted to see it and the ‘danger’ is part of the excitement of visiting the island. There are plenty of geothermal parks for tourists, but very few opportunities in the wild.
I tried breathing when I was taking photos like this one for about a minute, without the mask and coughed like crazy for some time afterwards. The survivors of the eruption had serious respiratory issues to go with the acid burns. I just got a tiny taste of the reason for the safety of the masks.
There was a webcam photo of people walking toward the crater and I hope that those people died almost instantly.
The bulges you can see in this photo are gas mounds with a thin crust holding the gas in. We were told that if you were to accidentally step on one of those, you would probably get cooked in acid immediately. I understand people have been seriously injured but rescued in the past.
The tour company staff used to visit every morning before carrying the first load of tourists over on their boats. They told us that the atmosphere was so corroded that they had to replace their uniform clothes about once a week, as they just perished.
When we landed, Hades came to mind. It was stark and the only relics of humans on the island were a few segments of walls from the old sulphur mine.
The mine was abandoned after 10 people were killed when part of the crater wall collapsed in 1914. The date is a bit spooky.
To go with an amazing collection of photos, I bought a Whakaari, White Island T-shirt as a souvenir. It says:
SHE’S OLD
SHE SMELLS
SHE SPEWS SULPHUR
AND I LOVE HER
New Zealand is an amazing country, and I will share more stories about the incredible places I have visited. The irony is that most young Kiwis strive for what we call our OE or overseas experience, which is spending a few years touring the world when we haven’t seen our own country.
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