Ever walked around an active volcano? I have! Monday I went out to White's island, NZ's only active marine volcano. The only other active volcano here is Ruapehu in the National Park, southern part of the North Island. But I didn't go tehre, so let's get back to White Island...

I eventually did get to Whakatane at 4pm Sunday (understand my griping now?) and stayed at a fantastic little hostel. Most hostels in NZ are omes that have been converted, making them small and cozy and completely spoiling the weary backpacker and tricking them into thinking this is how they deserve to be treated. But anyway, Monday turne out to be perfect weather for the trip out to the Island so on the boat I went.

It's 24 nautical miles to the island (about 50km) , taking at least 1.5 hours each way. We saw 2 pods of dolphins on the way there (bottle nosed?) who hung out with us for awhile. They are such fascinating animals and love to interact with boats and humans. I've been really lucky and have seen dolphins everytime I've been on a boat here, and am continually intrigued by them. But I digress...

So off we went in search of a volcano... White Island (so named by that Capt cook guy, who must have gotten so sick of naming this byt eh tiem he finished discovering the entire South Pacific!) came out of the ocean only a few hundred years ago and is about 2.4km in diamater. It's rated at 1 on a 0-5 scale, 0 being dormant and 5 being volatile. But it's last eruption... July 2001. Not a whole long time ago! There is bubbling mud and water everywhere, the smell of sulpher is incredibly strong and the earth is really warm to touch. I found my feet were getting quite hot through my sneakers as we walked around, but would cool off the higher we went up.

Tourists are only allowed to tour the island with a guide and provided they are wearing hard hats and have gas masks in case they are needed. There is a huge crater lake in the middle with a PH level of 1 - I'm told that's as acidic as it gets. The lake temperature is between 100 - 200 C. The island is still changing everyday, particularly in the lake levels. Check out the link form this page http://www.whiteisland.co.nz/ and you can see pictures of White Island upadated hourly.

Yesterday I came back up to Auckland and over to Wiheke Island, a 35 min ride from the city centre. Sherilyn & I came here in Feb-ish (remember the picture of me on the scooter?) and I thought it would be the perfect place to spend my last few days in NZ chilling out on the fantastic beaches. It's raining again. This is not funny anymore. I just want 1 mice beach day. I've been asking fro this for 2 weeks. Just one. please.