New Zealand is so amazing! EVERYthing is so beautiful here! We've been learning about the flora and fauna, as promised, but also having some really amazing experiences. Meeting new people on this trip has definitely been the best part, by far! I've met some really cool people and it makes the whole trip even better. I've also learned so much about the world and how America is so different than everyone else. This trip has been a great eye-opener so far, and I'm only half-way through!
This past Thursday we toured an active volcano! We rode the bus over to the dock and all loaded a yacht for it to take us 90 minutes across the open ocean to White Island. As we left the port, the captain pointed out that we might see dolphins and if we were lucky, whales--so I kept my eyes pealed, but no luck until we docked back at the port. On our small tour across the Southern Pacific a few of us slept, while the rest of us looked out the front, getting soaked from the rather large waves splashing us. When we finally arrived at White Island, we noticed there was no dock...only steps...and smoke coming up from the middle of the island. Then, the crew started passing out hard hats and gas masks! After we ancored near the shore, they started loading us on a small dingy at the back of the boat..group by group we were ushered over to the island and finally, when it was out turn...the boat puttered out!..Yep, it just decided it was time to break--so we (Shawn and Alec) had to paddle us back to the big boat! It was so hilarious! After a small repair, we were on our way back to White Island and to take out amazing tour of a live volcano!! I had never been anywhere near a volcano before this trip, now Ive hiked up about 3 and walked on an active one! When we arrived to the island of about 2.5 Km long, we all immediately noticed the rotten egg-smell...sulfer... in the air and that the ground was warm! And there was a small stream nearby of milky water running into the ocean..and as we started our tour, the tourguides told us of all the amazing formations on the island--from the former eruptions and gases forming vents on the land everyday. (And the night before all of this, we had 6 small (3-4 on the richter scale) earthquakes between 2-4am that morning, so we were all a little nervous of an explosion or another earthquake, but we made it out fine, thankfully!) But we walked all over the island, checking out the vents, where we had to wear our gas masks, and the pools--with a ph of 0!--and the various other small bubblies and formations that were very cool! The whole island had weird rocks too..all colors, from bright yellow and purple to silver and red. When we passed one of the small streams, the tourguide mentioned we could feel and taste it if we wanted--I didn't, but I hear it was very warm and tasted like metal. After our amazing tour of the volcano, we had lunch on the yacht and rode around the southern side of the island, where we saw amazing greenry and seals! Then we headed back across the rough ocean to the port (no seasickness from me!)--where, when we arrived, had a dolphin swimming along behind us! Very cool experience! Thank you everyone who helped plan this event, great choice!
Stephanie Dunn
