White Island NZ Whakaari
New Zealand
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Landings are no longer permitted, and the call is experienced entirely from the ship's decks with engines at idle. It remains one of the high points of a New Zealand itinerary.
About fifty kilometres offshore in the Bay of Plenty, on the east coast of the North Island. It is New Zealand's most active volcano.
James Cook named it so in 1769 for the white cloud permanently capping the cone. Two and a half centuries later the plume is still there — it announces the island long before you can make out its shape.
In Māori, Whakaari is often translated as 'that which can be made visible'. Nothing could be more apt: the volcano puts itself on show, in the open, without anyone needing to set foot on it.
A 321-metre cone of bare grey and ochre slopes dropping into the Pacific. Part of the wall collapsed on the southeast side, opening the volcanic amphitheatre to view from the water: fumaroles, steam columns and slopes stained yellow with sulphur.
Yes, when the breeze is right. The smell of sulphur reaches the deck — a quiet reminder that this land is breathing.
No. The captain sets the course according to the day's wind and volcanic activity. Some passes are made further offshore than others.
Yes. The gentler outer slopes hold large colonies of Australasian gannets nesting in their thousands on the ledges. Dolphins sometimes join the ship on the approach.
The rusted remains of an early twentieth-century sulphur works: broken walls and machinery frozen in rust, dismantled a little more each year by spray and acid gases. Binoculars help.
Get out on the open decks with binoculars and dress for the wind. Onboard commentary places the scene within the story of the Pacific Ring of Fire.
