Mother Nature Goes Naked

Tuesday, February 20th

White Island is New Zealand's only active marine volcano. It is constantly creating ever changing hissing fumaroles that spew-up eerie steam and acrid pungent gasses into the atmosphere; all surrounded by bright yellow sulphur deposits and bubbling mud.

I am determined to get up close - to see and feel Mother Nature’s awesome power at first hand.


0:915am - Embarkation onto PeeJay V

We leave the mouth of the Whakatana River at high tide

Around an hour and a half later we approach White Island, as the sky turns overcast

Disembarkation onto the former working wharf

Our tour guide, Tiffany, talks us through the Island's history

This place stinks!



















The remains of the long-abandoned and now decaying sulphur factory



Two hours later it's time to get back to the mainland





Goodbye White Island.
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So I think I will indeed stay a third night here in Whakatana and catch-up on all my chores.

On Thursday morning (22/02) I shall be up bright and early riding along SH35 around the Raukumara Mountain Range to and beyond New Zealand's most easterly cape. I'm told that the region has a low population, comprising predominantly of Maori people. Apparently it's like stepping back to the 1950s.

I've even heard it referred to as "Bandit Country" .. :o(

So I'm not expecting to see any cathedrals, multi-storey car parks, or chic latte coffee shops along the way around the East Cape! And I don't expect to be plugged into the Internet again until I turn-up at Gisborne, probably at the weekend, which is some 375 km (234 miles) away from here, Whakatana.

Now it's Butlins time .. but without the class!

After advance booking my ‘White Island Experience’ for the following day – Tue-18-Feb – with the kind assistance of the Best Western motel manager, I next take care of some Skypeing and blogging in Tauranga’s city centre.

Afterwards, towards midday, I then undertake the 95 km (60 mile) journey across the coastal roads to Whakatana Township. This short’ish ride was quite uneventful, taking no more than 90 minutes to complete, thus allowing me plenty of time to secure my next accommodation early – before the usual travellers’ late afternoon/early evening scramble.

I like the newly acquired economical idea of staying in a motor camp, as this will help ease the strain on my personal exchequer.

So I find Whakatana’s local motor camp and offered a choice of cabins by the resiedent manager; with or without a kitchen, at $60 (£21.68) or $50 (£18.00) per night respectively. I take the ‘with kitchen’ option for two nights, and secure an option to stay over for a third night, as there are still lots of domestic matters outstanding that will require much time to complete. For instance: Not counting the near all-day trip to White Island – Further Skypeing and blogging again, laundries, another haircut, update the trip’s financials – plus I have a lot of video footage to edit.

…. SCREAMIN’ .. Motorcycles

The next morning, Sunday Feb 18th, after some decent before-breakfast banter regarding which one of us is the loudest 'All England and New Zealand' champion at snoring and farting-in-bed .. ;o) .. we're on our way again, leaning into the many curves and twisties along the short 50 km (31 miles) journey towards Paeroa. Riding time is around an hour in total (not counting the stop-off for coffee). The busy roads are just teeming with motorbikes; most of which are heading towards the street races.



The weather was nearly perfect for the event. Not a cloud in the sky, and almost no breeze.

The racing contestants were just SCREAMING around the little makeshift street track -they must have balls the size of watermelons!













But by around 3:45pm Darryl needs to get away as he had the longest ride of us all back to Whangarei in Northland - around 300 km (188 miles); it could easily take him 4+ hours to complete the journey.

I decide to leave early with Darryl too, as I want to head back towards the coast and secure a decent place to stopover on the way to Whakatane, where I intend catching a boat, probably on Tuesday (20/02), to the active volcanic called 'White Island' out in the Bay of Plenty situated some 48 km - or 27 nautical miles - offshore from Whakatane.

So I say my goodbyes to all the guys.

Eventually, later that afternoon, I book into a Best Western motel on the outskirts of the up-and-coming 'chic' coastal city of Tauranga.

I've had a bloody marvellous couple of days with my newfound friends. But I know we'll keep in touch; I really hope so anyways.