Up early for breakfast before heading out on our White Island tour. Very exciting day. White Island is about 50km off the coast from Whakatane (note wh is pronounced f – more laughs!) and is an active volcano. There are vents constantly releasing gas and we are issued gas masks and hard hats before stepping on to the island. They warned us that the island could have an eruption at any time which would have meant rocks being thrown into the air and falling on our heads! This did not happen thank goodness but it was still very exciting and a bit nerve wracking being inside a volcano. There is a lake in the crater with water temperatures up to 68 degrees! And it was pretty smelly in certain places so we were glad to have the gas masks as it did sting the eyes a bit. Really cool.
Afterwards we drove just a bit further North to Awakeri Hot Springs to camp for the night. The campground has a thermal pool which is 38 degrees! So we all soaked in there for a while before cooking dinner, having a game of cards and going to bed.
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