Whakatane & White Island

I don't really remember how far exactly is Whakatane from Rotorua but it was close to 2-hour drive north. Read more about Whakatane here if you want. The top photo is some panoramic view of (1) Whakatane and (2) Whakatane beach. We only went there so that we could go to White Island, one of the 3 active volcanoes in NZ. Last year, Lonely Planet rated White Island as a must-see attraction for those in NZ, so we decided to have a peek. There were couple of tours going there. The cheapest is the White Island Tours at NZD160. It involve a boat ride to White Island, which is 46km offshore from Whakatane, and a guided tour of the White Island itself. Morning tea and lunch are provided (they were halal as they were vegetarian meals). Alternatives were tours involving helicopter ride but the cheapest were around NZD300. I recommend the boat ride as while I was on the boat ride I got to see whales doing their breathing thing! Anyway, I imagined the crater of White Island filled with molten lava but instead it is filled with hot steaming coloured water (bottom photo). I was a bit dissapointed, only a bit, as the island is still intriguing. I forgot why it was called White Island but it certainly isn;t white. It mostly consisted of grey rocks that are sometime interrupted by coloured rocks, mud pools, and fumaroles. The coloured rocks are from residual minerals that flow out of the belly of the volcano. Amazingly there were lots of seagulls there (and lots of bridshit too - perhaps that is why some has called it white! :D) The island has a fascinating history itself. In the past, people has thought that it had abundant of top quality sulphur and so some has mined it. It turn out that the sulphur there were of poor grade and the living condition were too harsh. Factory equipments rusted too quickly and frequent earthquakes and landslides has taken many lives. Eventually the mining companies become liquidated and the lawyer who processed the liquidation brought the island off the company and his family remain the owner of the island to this day. Today, White Island is used as a tourist attraction and scientific studies.