White Island, or Whakaari as the Maori know it, is located in the Bay of Plenty off the town of Whakatane (pronounced Fa-ka-ta-ne). Whakatane, 300km southeast of Auckland, is a lovely town with plenty of shops, restaurants, pubs and a wide range of accommodation. It was also one of the first places in New Zealand that the Maori settled, over 800 years ago.
Whakatane’s main attraction is White Island, and it is possible to tour the island, which is a privately owned scenic reserve, by boat or helicopter. However, we travelled to Whakatane to dive this volcano with Dive White, which is owned and operated by Tony Bonne.
Dive White is a PADI 5 star dive centre and operate a 9m foil assisted catamaran ‘Black Shag’ daily to White Island. Tony and his team have done a great deal to promote White Island as one of New Zealand’s major diving destinations, and were recently awarded the Visitor Industry Award for the Eastern Ba
y of Plenty.Being such a long way off the coastline, diving White Island is very weather dependant. We dropped in to see Tony the day before our dives, he informed us they hadn’t been diving the last few days because conditions had been rough, but the forecast was looking good with light winds predicted.
The next morning found us loading our dive gear onto Black Shag at 8am. It was a cool March morning, but with little wind and clear skies it looked like being a great day. With our gear stowed, we met our fellow divers from New Zealand and Ireland, and our crew, Evan the skipper and James our dive guide.
Black Shag is very comfortable and stable, with plenty of room for dive gear, camera gear and dry gear. She has a nice warm cabin, and a head (toilet), which every diver appreciates on a dive boat.
The crossing to White Island takes around one and a half hours, and there are usually a few distractions to help pass the time. Whales and dolphins are common in the Bay of Plenty, though we didn’t see any today. However, numerous flying fish and sea birds skimming across the ocean’s surface entertained us.
As we got closer to White Island it became more and more impressive. The volcano rises from the ocean floor, 760m below and towers 321m above sea level. Above water it is 2.4km by 2km, but the base on the sea floor is 16km by 18km. We expected White Island to be completely barren, but vegetation manages to survive on the outer edges of the island. Gannets also nest on the island at two large colonies.
As the boat headed around the southern end of the island we got our first view into the crater. It could easily be a view from another planet, barren rocks coloured red, yellow and brown, steam rising from several vents and no sign of life. We also noticed dirty yellow water at this end of the island, runoff from the island, which only started a few weeks earlier. Fortunately, the runoff was limited to a small area.
We continued around to the eastern side of the island, anchoring at a site called Two Towers. The water looked bluey-green, not too bad after the rough conditions of the last few days. James gave as a dive briefing about the site, which consists of two rocky islands linked by a ridge, with a wall dropping down past 30m.
Once in the water we found the visibility around 10m, okay for photography, and the water temperature 20C. White Island is swept by the East Auckland current, originating on the Great Barrier Reef, which brings the larvae of tropical species, and larger marine species, to the island. This means that White Island has an interesting mixture of temperate and tropical species, especially during summer when the water temperature can reach 24C. Over summer, divers have seen turtles, manta rays, sunfish and even the odd whale shark at White Island.
We drifted down the wall to 28m, which was completely covered with thick strap kelp. Under the kelp was a kaleidoscope of colour, with sponges, coralline algae, jewel anemones, hydroids and bryozoans covering the rocks. Slowly swimming along the wall we were soon surrounded by a school of pink maomao. The fluro pink fish swarmed around us and then disappeared back into the kelp. Amongst the kelp were an abundance of reef fish, leatherjackets, scorpionfish, black angelfish, marblefish, red pigfish, butterfly perch, sandagers wrasse, red morwong and demoiselle. We also spotted several moray eels, either swimming through the kelp or hanging half out of their lair.
The wall undercut at a few locations, with the ceiling covered in sponges and a carpet of yellow zooanthids. A close look revealed several species of nudibranch and beautiful little triple fins. We also found a number of large spiny sea stars and colourful firebrick sea stars. At the end of the dive we returned to the top of the wall and had a small school of kingfish swim by as we did our safety stop.
After the dive there was a smorgasbord of food on offer, pizza, sandwiches, biscuits and freshly baked scones. Evan moved the boat closer to Crater Bay so we could have a look at the steam rising from the volcanic vents dotted across the crater. While we eat lunch James filled us in on the history of White Island.
Formed over 200,000 years ago, White Island is one of a string of volcanos that run across the north island of New Zealand and up toward Tonga. It was named by Captain Cook in 1769 and was mined for sulphur from 1885 to 1933. Several miners were killed during the mining days, including ten in 1914 when a major eruption caused the south-eastern rim of the crater to collapse. The volcano erupts every few years, spewing ash into the air, the last major eruption occurred in 2000.
After lunch we headed over to the western side of the island. The water looked clearer, so we anchored at a site called Spanish Arch. Here we explored a rocky reef rising from 15m to 5m. In the improved 15m visibility, we followed James to the arch. This large archway cuts through the reef and is decorated with bryozoans, jewel anemones and sponges. The arch is home to a school of blue maomao and several large blue moki.
Shining our torches around the recesses in the arch, we were hoping to see some of the Spanish lobsters that sometimes reside here. We didn’t find any crayfish but did see several moray eels. Exploring the rest of the reef we encountered large scorpionfish, more blue morwong, wrasse, pigfish, leatherjackets, black angelfish and a school of koheru.
The moray eels are amazing in New Zealand; on this dive alone we must have seen twenty, representing three species, yellow, grey and speckled. However, we not only saw them under ledges, but lying out in the open or just wrapped up in the kelp.
Our second day of diving White Island was even better, the wind had dropped out completely and the sea was like glass as we headed across the Bay of Plenty. Today the dolphins appeared, and for ten minutes we motored along slowly as a pod of common dolphins played around the boat.
With such wonderful diving conditions, Evan headed to Volkner Rocks, three-rock sea stacks a few kilometres west of White Island. Dive White has over a dozen regular dive sites they visit around the island, and if conditions allow they also like to explore new sites. As we motored up to Volkner Rocks the water appeared bright blue, not only from the clear water, but from thousands of blue maomao on the surface. Rather than dive the usual dive site of Diadema City, it was decided we would explore the reef here, on the eastern side of the rock.
Neither Evan or James had dived this site, so we didn’t know what to expect, though Evan informed us that he had taken several spearfishermen here once and they saw schools of kingfish and several bronze whaler sharks.
As soon as we jumped in we were surrounded by blue maomao. It was like a whirlpool, with thousands of bright blue coloured fish swimming circles around us. We just sat on the bottom for five minutes mesmerised by so many fish, which were occasionally joined by silver trevally, pink maomao and kingfish.
The boat sounder indicate
d that the reef here dropping beyond 40m. We started down the slope to explore
the site. All around us was strap kelp, a great expanse of waving kelp fronds.
As we headed down the slope the fish followed us, although the visibility was
15m, the fish were limiting our vision to only a few metres. At 33m, the kelp
was continuing into the distance, so we decided to head back into shallow water
to see what we could find.Under the shadow of the towering rock stack we found a jumble of boulders in 12m of water. Around these boulders was an abundance of reef fish, including leatherjackets, scorpionfish, wrasse and moray eels. We then came across a narrow cave, cutting into the rock face, however the strong surge in the shallows made it too dangerous to safely enter.
After another filling lunch we headed to the eastern side of White Island to a site known as The Fumerole. This is an old lava tube, with an opening in the top of the reef in 5m of water. We descended into this black hole and dropped 8m to the base of the cave. The cave is L-shaped and opens up in the lower section, exiting on the reef wall some 25m away. It is quite a wide exit, which is screened by a curtain of strap kelp and sea plume. On the floor of the cave we noticed that the rocks looked like they were flowing, evidence of the old lava flow.
Inside the cave were blue maomao, red and blue morwong, bullseyes, scorpionfish and demoiselle. James told us to keep an eye out for stingrays and huge packhorse crayfish, unfortunately none were seen. Exploring the kelp and sponges on the outer wall of the cave we found more reef fish, sea stars and some beautiful clown and gem nudibranchs.
Our four dives around White Island gave us a brief taste of this impressive dive destination. Next time we hope to dive Laison’s Reef, a pinnacle rising from 150m to 12m and always busy with fish, another impressive pinnacle is known as Diadema City and there is also the colourful canyons at Homestead Reef to explore.
For a dive experience that you will never forget, above and below the surface, head over to New Zealand and enjoy some volcanic diving at White Island.