Monday - White Island
As we stayed in the White Island tour company motel. We had a bit a lay in. I was dreading the hour and half boat ride as the last time I was on this waters I spewed the total content of my stomach up, including the bile.
I popped a couple of 'sea legs' pills and ordered a slice of ginger cake for breakfast. Apparently ginger is good for this sort of thing. We crossed the road and boarded the boat around 10am. Luckily the sea was calm and we had seats at the back of the boat.
So the journey begun. I kept my eye on the shore line for a good hour before it disappeared.
Around 11.30am we had arrived, success. No sickness the entire way over. The ginger must be working.
The boat moored just off the shoreline as it was too shallow to dock. The group was then ferried to the island on a little dingy.
We finally stepped on to White Island, New Zealand's only active marine volcano via a rustic steal gurda making a makeshift ramp.

The beach was black from the ash on old rocks from previous eruptions. Our tour guide have us a safety briefing and issued us with helmets and a gas mask. We had to watch out for black smoke or an earthquake.

We started our tour going clockwise around the island. Our first stop was showing us the rocks that were thrown out from the last eruption. They came in different sizes from footballs to marbles. They have us a lump to feel. It was surprising light. The rock had a shinny tinge to it like a snail trail. This was called 'Silica' apparently there are three types of volcano, as this had a high Silica content it was not a volcano that erupted lava, but a volcano that went boom and loads of rocks would shoot out.

We moved up towards the rim of the Volcano, the air was getting strong with Sulphur with most of the group having a coughing fit we placed our gas masks on. The sulphur extracts had turned the rocks an illuminous lime colour. It was like something from the old Star Trek series.

The guide explained to us that the lime green mounds were crusts of mud pools forming and that the surface was very fragile. If we stepped on them, there was potential for it to break and we fall through to the very hot mud below.

With the weather clear and the volcano only emitting white steam, it was ok for us to head up to the volcano's crater. The crater rim has a bit of a overhang so we could only got about a metre or two from the edge. It was enough thought to give us a clear view of the inside. Below was a lake steaming away. We did the tourist thing and got our photo taken in front of the crater. The guide told us old tales and facts about the volcano while we where up there taking pictures.

Apparently a hundred years ago local residents reported that lava was coming out of the volcano, however this was not a lava volcano and it was later discovered that the redness they saw was from the rocks getting heated up so much that they turned red.

We headed down to some more mud pools boiling away before we arrived at two streams. Our guide advised that the water was safe to drink, Stevie and I tried some. It was very warm and tasted like blood from some element in the volcano, the second stream had a bit of a lime taste. That was before the guide said it contained a small portion of arsenic. Arsenic! I wish he had told me before I tried this poison! I was downing a small bottle of Water to flush this toxin out of me.

We headed to Wilson's bay, named after one of the previous owners of the island. Apparently this island has changed many hands and now owned by a family in a trust name. From here we finished off at the old mining station. Workers use to come out here circa 1900 and mine for sulphur to sell mainly as fertiliser. They would sign up for 3 months at time and be one of the highest paid occupations. The longest serving guy on record was 8 years!
Only parts of the only station remained due to the years and harsh conditions.

2 hours later we made our way back to the boat where an optional swim was on the cards. Stevie and I passed on this and went straight for the free lunch.

A sandwich, cake, fruit and a couple of nut bars. It was a decent size lunch.

After lunch we headed back to the main land. I was hoping that the pills and ginger from earlier were still effective. Around 10 minutes into the journey back we deviated. The captain had spotted some dolphins. We headed to them... The boat stopped... It was amazing! There must have been around 20 of them, playing around and jumping around the boat. I whipped out the iPad to record some of the amazing up close scenes, I was to caught up in the magic to realise that I never pressed record. I finally got it working darting from one side of the boat to the other to capture the moment.
After about 10/15minutes we headed back and relaxed in the sun. Around 3.30pm we were back. The second leg of the boat trip a success, no puking.

We jumped in the car and headed up towards Paeroa. It took a lot longer than we thought with a the winding roads and hills.
We wanted to headed to Paeroa as it was the birth place of the famous L&Ps drink (a lemon flavoured fizzy drink). The town had a couple of large L&Ps bottles that we wanted to get a photo of. The town had banners everywhere promoting the drink. They loved it. I wouldn't be surprised if their babies got baptised in the stuff.
We grabbed a bit of food as the sun set and headed off to find accommodation at the karange gorge. We wanted to do a walk there in the morning as it was meant to have one of the best walks around the Coromandel.

It was only 8pm And the first place was full and the second no one answered. So we decided to head back to Wahei. On route a B&B was advertised down I dirt track and it was still in the gorge. We headed up. Random cats appeared everywhere. We found the lodge. Stevie didn't want to get out the car so I looked for the office. I couldn't find one. I could see the neighbouring house had a light on. I thought I would check it out as I could see a small person walking around. I made my way down this lone round and up this dirt track, the path was over grown with trees and random cat ran in every direction, I made it to the door, it was open and music was playing, I knocked, no answer. My head brushed through cobwebs. The walls were overgrown with bush. I waited. It got too Erie for me. I briskly made my way back to the car feeling like I was in a scene from the movie Wrong Turn.

With goosebumps all over I got out as fast as I could. We eventually found a nice motel in Waihi to settle down for the night.