WHITE ISLAND !

We're going to White Island next holidays!
White Island volcano is estimated to be between 150,000 to 200,000 years old.
It was named White Island by Captain Cook, the first European to sight it. This was in 1769 and as he noted in the Endeavour’s log book, “We called it White for as such it always appear’d to us”. Cook, however, did not come close enough to realise it was a volcano.
Europeans did not land on White Island until 1826. The first man to do so was a naval officer, turned missionary, called The Rev Henry Williams, who sailed there aboard a schooner. Williams described the scene:



“We walked round the crater, which presented an awful sight. Its surface was nearly on a level with the sea. One of its sides having fallen in, we had easy access. Steam and smoke were issuing from all parts of the island and to the very summit. There were several small lakes of boiling substance, and on the right a large body of smoke with the upmost fury rose up from the regions below. We examined this awful sight as minutely as we dared but from the intolerable stench of brimstone and the lightness of the surface over which we had to pass, we deemed it not prudent to remain long, fearing suffocation from the one or precipitation into some boiling cavity from the other. As the whole island was composed of sulphur, being blackened with the smoke gave it a ghastly appearance.”

I'm looking forward to it!