Even more magma hotspot activity was provided by the boat ride to White Island, courtesy of White Island Tours. The island itself is privately owned, not everyone has their own volcano. I stayed at the White Island Motel, and very good accommodation it was. White Island is a live volcano, with occasional pyroclastic eruptions - part of the reason that sulphur mining on the island was abandoned. One is issued with a hard hat and a gas mask for the trip around the crater, necessary due to the fumes. The guides warned us to follow the path carefully as in places the ground is uncompacted ash one can sink into. Steam continuously belches from many parts of the crater, at times engulfing you - you're conscious of being on top of a boiling kettle. The yellow of sulphur stains the streams and cracks, the lake is a luminous bloodless green.

Complementing nature's extreme are the remains of the last sulphur mining activity, gaunt ruins fit for a Wild West film. The boat toured the outside of the island to see gannets nesting, Pohutukawa trees growing, blue Mau Mau fish swimming and purple jellyfish jiggling. We didn't spot any whales or dolphins on the way back to Whakatane. I did learn that Whakatane is really said Fakatane (the Wh in Maori is typically a F sound.) Happily the seas were very gentle, this meant transferring from the launch to the island by inflatable boat wasn't too hard on my nerves. The captain was laid back, steering with his foot! A good trip apart from the party of schoolboys running around unsupervised.