Our visit to White Island was certainly the highlight of the tour. White Island is an active volcano 50km off the coast, in the middle of the Bay of Plenty. There’s not that many places on earth where you can step into the crater of a live volcano so everyone on the tour was excited.

It was an early, pre-dawn start, with breakfast at 5.15am so we could reach the Bay of Plenty town of Whakatane, our departure point. The sun was just rising when the boat passed the sandbar.

The coast was soon behind us as we cruised into the middle of the bay.

It was a bit chilly on deck, but being very prone to seasickness, I’d rather be there than indoors. Luckily the weather was good and the water was quite calm.

We first caught sight of the island about an hour or so into the journey. And the volcano was steaming!

We arrived at the hour-and-a-half mark. With some trepidation, we boarded the rubber zodiacs and approached the island.

What did we find?