Wednesday, May 1, 2019

White island Adventure Bay of Plenty New Zealand with haiku and a narrative poem

White Island Trip with Volcanic Safari's.  





 I thought for a while
 on the way out in the boat
 that if White Island decided
 to unleash  her fury
and erupt.


 All the safety precautions 
 in the world
would be in vain
 because
 we'd all be blown to pieces
 

 Poisoned with noxious gas,
suffocated with smoke
or burned 
to bone with lava. 

 


 The chances of tragedy
happening on
White island
 isn't very high 
...  or is it?




 monitored
by scientists
daily
the last time
 it erupted was two 
years ago
 
 that was 
at night so
no-one was hurt

 


with a
live volcano
you never know
 
 It's an eerie,
erratic
puffing billy




The prospect
 of  an explosion
filled me with
dread but it
also thrilled me
like a horror story



 
 Just one week before
 an eighty year old man
 on a guided tour  
slipped to his end at
Whale island


 


I've been  to that
island  and
 I remembered  thinking
how dangerous
it was
the open cliff face
where
 he stumbled ...



this place should be
fenced off
someone could fall
over the edge so easily
  I thought while
shivering in the wind




nothing
 untoward 
happened to us
on our 
White island adventure
even though all day
 I felt like I was
channelling ghosts


 




                                   Hopping off the boat
onto a
 bobbing
 rubber dinghy
 required
balance and timing
without
squashing fingers and toes

 clambering up the
iron rods to
the sand bagged
 rocks required
 the physical agility
of a mountain goat

 
 going for a tramp
near the edge
of the boiling cauldron
 required an average
 level of fitness and had us all puffing


 



  Imagining
I was on the moon
with  its craters
 and physical
complications
of restricted breathing
kept me alert
 


 
 enhaling
                                         yellow torrents
                                        of steam laced sulphur
                                        had us all coughing

                                         respite  proffered
                                          by guides bearing
                                          baskets of
                                             boiled lollies
                                         had us all sucking
                                        
                                        sipping acidic
                                     and iron  flavoured
                                      hot running  water  
                                      from two streams
                                        reminded us that
                                        there was no natural
                                      way to quench your thirst
                                        in the tough terrain
                                     

                                                                                                                      
                                  
                                                         watching smoke
 venting from
fissures
like steam trains 
chugging through  
funnels of white yellow tunnels
rock



the wasted remains
of the sulphur mines
 with decaying buildings
and cogs that 
were crusty with rust 
 
 saturated skeletons
of  Autumnal
orange  grey and  brown






what type of man 

would be

 attracted to a job

 like  in an offshore

desolated
sulphur mine?






                                        if you lived there

too long sulphur

ate through 

the soles of your

shoes





 


 

and rotted

the enamel off  your teeth
corroded your 
fillings so they fell out 
                                                                      



 on the voyage home
 the island's
 gannet colony
teemed with
 




pointy beaks
peering over the
cliffs to the fish
 filled sea below

 
some of the
 gannets followed 
us home
 dive bombing 
like torpedos
for their prey


 just as we were
approaching
 the Whakatane bar
we were asked to search
 for a missing swimmer
at Ohope beach 


 visions of
hauling in a dead 
bloated body
floated into my mind
 but luckily he
turned up on the beach alive

 


 

 

 

Go there if you want 
                                                a live

volcano encounter
with  possible wild life
its well worth the
 
 

 



                                  

 You  hopefully won't 
be blown up and you'll
 be treated like royalty 
by the Volcanic Safari team






Drop me a line if you go
I'd love to hear your
 impressions...
 




 Haiku about  my adventure to Whale island





 following the boat
  waves of frothy milk fan out  
danger lurks ahead

          




                     looking out for fish
                on the way to white island
                all I see is foam



focusing on spray
that flings up beside the boat 
looks like shattered glass







  view of whale island
   from the beach at Ohiwa
looks like a slipper



     




you have to be brave
to negotiate the waves
bouncing rubber boat





shape of  a dogs head
silhouetted on the land
wonder if it bites




naked lava flows
undulating on the crust
bush blankets old wounds 





Creative Quote of the day

“It is spectacular to watch an erupting volcano; but it is even much more spectacular to watch the rise of a newly exploding revolutionary idea!”
Mehmet Murat ildan  








 Facts About White island
Attempts were first made to mine sulfur on White Island around the beginning of the 20th century.

 On 10 September 1914, 10 miners were killed when part of the crater wall collapsed, causing a landslide.
The only survivor was the mining company’s cat, Peter the Great. Sulfur was used in the manufacture of sulphuric acid and superphosphate fertiliser.

White Island, in the Bay of Plenty 50 km from Whakatāne and Ōpōtiki, is New Zealand’s most active volcano.
 Known to Māori as Whakaari (‘to uplift or expose to view’), it is important to the local iwi, Ngāti Awa and Te Whakatōhea.

Sulfur mining on White Island recommenced in the late 1920s but proved uneconomic and ceased in the early 1930s. 
A total of 11,000 tonnes had been obtained. 
Today the island is a privately owned scenic reserve and tourism venture.




























































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