WHITE ISLAND VISIT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 267, 5 February 1941, Page 3

WHITE ISLAND VISIT

dominion safety valve ' GLSBORXE PARTY'S TOUR A holiday o!i the beaten traek and in some of the most interesting parts oJ' tlie Dominion has been coneluded by a G isborne party, states tlie Herald. They spent a day on White Island, commonly referred to as New Zealand's "safety valve/' called at Raurimu roeUs on the way back, and later visited the Little Barrier Island, in the I-lauraki Gulf. After sccur ; ng permission from the owner of White Island, Mr K. M. Butler, Auckland, the party, which, included two men from Wlmkatane and two from Auckland, set oil' in a launch from Whakatane. Arriving at AVhitc Island shortly after 5 o'clock, the party Avas fortunate in securing a good landing. Main' a party going there has to turn back because of the heavy surf making a landing impossible or, at least, dangerous. The Gisbomites landed at the lip of the crater where it meets the sea, near a spot where in 1914 a party ol men working the sulphur deposits was burned and killed in the qu; i ters under a falling cliff.

A Weird Place

The crater, the visitors found, was a Aveird place and one seldom visited. The crater is littered Avith rock crystal and gypsum, and the ground is treacherous, for one does not

know Avherc a portion may ca\ r e away, unless a reliable guide is

ivith the party

Mir Peach, who described the Arisit, stated that the main blowhole, known as Big Donald, Avas regarded as one of the largest i'umcroles in the Avorld, being about 30ft. across and emitting steam Avilh such

a terrific roar that it Avas impossible to hear oneself speak. It had been estimated that the* combined pojver of Wiarakei, WhakarewareAva and T'ikitere Avere not nearly as great as the pressure exerted by the steam roaring from Big Donald.

The crates was a mass of colour, the yellow of sulphur, piled high in massive statuette form with steam issuing from the tops, combining with the white steam and multicoloured cliff that surrounded the crater. As was to be expected, there was not a vestige of vegetation within the crater or on the cliffs surrounding it, but on the northern side of the island, where liad been the quarters of one of the parties that once worked the sulphur pohutukawas grew i.i profusion and were in full bloom, while scrub and grass thrived.

Gannets Studied,

A marked change was noted when the party left the crater and went to the rookeries on the northern side, for there all was quiet and the lapping of the sea and screech of the gannets provided the only sound. The members of the party spent some hours inspecting the rookeries and studying the habits of the birds.

At the sea edge of the crater and near the rookeries were the remains of the building and plant of the organisations which worked the sulphur deposits at various times. Mr Peach said that great expense must have been incurred in those attempts, judging from the materia! which lay rusting and rotting, in addition to a ferro-eoncrete break 1 water 50 yards long.

Apart from the gannets on the island, which was one ot' four places in New Zealand where the gannets made their home, many other types of birds were met with on the trip across in the early morning, including the spotted shag, mutton bird, several species of petrel, including Cook's petrel, the little blue penguin and white-fronted terns.

So interested "was the party in bird life that on its return to Whakatane it called at the Raurima rocks, one ol' v. hich is the home of the tuatara lizard. These rocks are small islands of from two to three acres, and the one they called at carried large, numbers of tern, which laid their eggs in little holes in the sand. They occupied the foreshore, or t'.ie "stalls," while the seagulls looked enviously on from the "dress circle" behind and defied the terns to trespass on ground th.i seagulls had regarded as their own territory. The visit to the Little Barrier was equally interesting. On the island there lived, only the caretaker and his wife, and the place was a bird saiietuary where many kinds of native birds {-bounded. Many of them were tame, and the caretaker spoke of the liellbirds coming even into the kitchen during the jammaking season.