White Island

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="045085a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Golf Mike Bravo going around...</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Golf Mike Bravo going around..."><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Golf Mike Bravo going around..."><U><B><IMG SRC="03b0e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALT="up" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>   </B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="14"><B>     </B><A HREF="id214.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sydney Harbour"><U><B><IMG SRC="02f0e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALT="previous" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="14"></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="046d2e83.jpg"> <div> <IMG SRC="8f2a0780.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="120" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <A HREF="id214.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sydney Harbour"><U>Sydney Harbour</U></A></div> <div> <B>White Island</B></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#CCCCE4" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>White Island</I></div> <bR> <div> Wednesday 8th November 2006</div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.geonet.org.nz/whiteisland.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.geonet.org.nz/whiteisland.htm"><U>http://www.geonet.org.nz/whiteisland.html</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="8f3ce180.gif" border=0 width="206" height="280" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="10" VSPACE="0">Today I find myself in the New Zealand town of Whakatane (pron. <I>Faka tah nee</I>), in the Bay of Plenty region of the North Island. This is supposedly one of the sunniest parts of the country, but the thick fog, wind and rain that greeted us this morning were more reminiscent of England. The reason for the bad weather: I had a flight booked with <A HREF="http://www.whiteisland.co.nz" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.whiteisland.co.nz"><U>Air Discovery</U></A> to go and see White Island.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="8f454ff0.jpg" border=0 width="340" height="255" ALIGN="RIGHT" HSPACE="10" VSPACE="0">White Island (Whakaari) is possibly the main reason people visit Whakatane. It is an active volcano, some 28 miles off the coast, and it's one of the very few active volcanoes that can actually be visited. You can go by boat or helicopter and land on the volcano, or do like I did, and orbit in a Cessna 172.</div> <bR> <div> The boat trip would normally take six hours, there and back, but, the picture on the right shows the sea conditions, and predictably there were no sailings today!</div> <bR> <div> The weather forecast suggested that conditions should steadily improve through the day, and indeed this was the case. By lunchtime the sun was shining, and the clouds were lifting, although they were still glowering low over the mountains to the South. My trip was booked for 4pm, and the conditions out to see were looking pretty good. The wind however was still 20 gusting 25 on the ground.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="90354ff0.jpg" border=0 width="340" height="255" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="10" VSPACE="0">At the airport I met up with Mark, the pilot, and we briefed, donned life jackets and went out to the aircraft, a Cessna 172, ZK-EJY. The flight would take about an hour, roughly 20 minutes outbound, 20 minutes back and 15 minutes at the volcano.</div> <bR> <div> On the way out we pass Whale Island (Moutohora), just six miles from the coast. Unsurprisingly it gets its name from its profile, resembling that of a whale. It's a conservation project, with access to the island strictly controlled. All rodents and other pests have been eradicated, and a thriving colony of kiwis has been reintroduced there. We pass by at 1000ft, and then climb to 3000 for the longer sea crossing. The wind is still noticeably quite strong, and there is a distinct crab angle to our flight.</div> <bR> <div> Already we can see White Island in the distance, and it doesn't seem long before we're setting up a gentle orbit. Even at 3000ft it looks impressive, and as we  cross  the downwind end of the island, the distinctive smell of sulphur. Breakers can clearly be seen crashing against the shore, and the wind is whipping up white caps on the waves.</div> <bR> <div> Our second orbit is lower, down to 2000ft, and  the details become clearer. Not only can we see the ruins of the late 19th Century attempts at  sulphur mining, but there is also a helicopter on the ground, obviously at least one other tour is taking place today!  We get a good look at the steaming green acid "waters" of the crater lake. This is truly an inhospitable place. Apart from a few scrubby pohutakawa trees clinging to the upwind slopes, there is nothing alive here. Mark warns that as we  transit the downwind side of the island we can expect to experience some turbulence, and he's not wrong. The plane is rocked and buffeted for a few seconds and then we're back into clear air. </div> <bR> <div> The third orbit takes us down to 1500ft. We hear the helicopter announce over the radio that it's departing to return to Whakatane. The turbulence this time is stronger, with a significant wing drop. Once through, we descend further to 800 feet in order to get a closer view of a gannet colony that exists on the side of the volcano. Mark says that with more favourable winds, we'd be able to orbit right down to 500ft, but considering the turbulance at 1500ft, for today it would be too risky. So we climbed back to 3000ft and headed back towards the mainland, setting up for a right base join for the grass runway 27.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="8f554ff0.jpg" border=0 width="340" height="255" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="8f654ff0.jpg" border=0 width="340" height="255" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="8f754ff0.jpg" border=0 width="340" height="255" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="8f854ff0.jpg" border=0 width="340" height="255" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="8f954ff0.jpg" border=0 width="340" height="255" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="8fa54ff0.jpg" border=0 width="340" height="255" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="8fb54ff0.jpg" border=0 width="340" height="255" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="8fc54ff0.jpg" border=0 width="340" height="255" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="8fd54ff0.jpg" border=0 width="340" height="255" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="8fe54ff0.jpg" border=0 width="340" height="255" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="8ff54ff0.jpg" border=0 width="340" height="255" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="90054ff0.jpg" border=0 width="340" height="255" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="90154ff0.jpg" border=0 width="340" height="255" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="90254ff0.jpg" border=0 width="340" height="255" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>