IslandNew Zealand · NZ
Whakaari / White Island
About 50 kilometres off New Zealand's Bay of Plenty coast, a low dark island breathes a constant column of steam into the sky. This is Whakaari / White Island, the country's most active cone volcano and the northern sentinel of the Taupō Volcanic Zone—an andesite stratovolcano whose peak is only the visible tip of a mountain that rises some 1,600 metres from the seafloor. To local iwi Ngāti Awa it is Te Puia o Whakaari, 'the dramatic volcano', a treasured ancestor wrapped in legend; to Captain James Cook, who named it in 1769, it was simply White Island for its perpetual pall of vapour. For decades Whakaari was the rare volcano visitors could walk into, a churning moonscape of sulphur vents, bubbling mud and a boiling acid crater lake. Since the tragic eruption of 9 December 2019, however, landing on the island has been closed. That has not dimmed its pull: today travellers reach it by scenic flight, glimpse it from coastal lookouts on clear days, watch it erupt in real time on live webcams, and learn how an active marine volcano shaped the stories, industry and memory of the Eastern Bay of Plenty.