Live Marine Volcano Tour Of White Island (Bay of Plenty)

Your experience begins with a 90-minute cruise aboard one of our vessels. During the trip, we serve morning tea, issue you with your safety equipment – a hard hat and gas mask – and share our knowledge of the surrounding marine environment. Upon reaching the island we anchor, launch an inflatable boat and run through a brief history of the island. Then we take everyone in small groups, via the inflatable boat, over to the old jetty. You’ll have a couple of obstacles to negotiate first – a short ladder on the side of the jetty, a 1.5 metre steel platform spanning gap in the jetty and some boulders on the foreshore – before we reach the island. You’ll then be led by the guides around the inner crater area, viewing the awesome main crater complex, hissing fumeroles and old sulphur-mining factory and hearing the island’s history, geology and flora and fauna. After the tour, we re-board and serve lunch. There is also a chance for a swim or some snorkelling if conditions permit. Then we begin our relaxing journey home. Our permit to view marine mammals means that we make mammal-viewing part of the day – if they’re out there!