Whakaari/White Island: a deep dive into New Zealand's offshore volcano
Whakaari, also known by its English name White Island, is a small volcanic island that sits in the Bay of Plenty off New Zealand's North Island. It is the only currently active volcano in the country that erupts from a true island, and it is the country's most continuously active overall. For decades it was open to tourism. After the 2019 disaster, that era ended.
A submarine volcano that broke the surface
Whakaari is the emerged top of a much larger submarine stratovolcano on the Taupō volcanic arc, which runs from White Island down through Rotorua, Taupō and Tongariro. Most of the volcano is underwater. Only the central crater complex breaches the surface — a horseshoe of cliffs around a sulphur-stained crater floor.
Acid lakes and fumaroles
Inside the crater, an acidic crater lake forms and disappears over years and decades, depending on rainfall, eruption activity and hydrothermal flow. Fumaroles vent sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide. Yellow sulphur crystals grow around the vents overnight. The entire landscape feels alien — barren, hot, chemically aggressive.
A long history of eruptions
European observation began in the 1820s, but the island has been active for at least 150,000 years. Eruptions in 1914 killed ten sulphur miners working in the crater. Sulphur mining continued intermittently until 1933. From the 1970s through the 2010s, the volcano produced a continuous pattern of small eruptions, ash emissions and occasional steam explosions.
The 2019 disaster
On 9 December 2019, a sudden steam-driven explosion sent super-heated ash and gas across the crater floor while 47 tourists and guides were inside. Twenty-two people died and the rest were severely injured. The disaster ended commercial visits to the island. New Zealand and Australian authorities also pursued criminal cases against tour operators.
Risk and tourism ethics
The 2019 deaths reopened a hard question about volcano tourism: how much risk is acceptable on an active vent that is monitored but never fully predictable. Whakaari had been at elevated alert in the weeks before the eruption. Subsequent legal and regulatory changes in New Zealand have made similar tours far harder to operate, on Whakaari or anywhere else.
Ownership and visitors today
Whakaari is privately owned and has been in the hands of the Buttle family since the 1930s, leased to the New Zealand government as a scenic reserve. Direct landings are no longer offered to the public; helicopter flyovers and offshore boat tours give an external view, with the active crater visible from the air.
Monitoring from the mainland
GNS Science operates a continuous monitoring programme using seismometers, cameras, gas sensors and satellite data. Alert bulletins are published whenever conditions change. Whakaari is also a research site for understanding small-but-deadly phreatic eruptions, which give the shortest warning of any volcanic activity.
Why Whakaari matters
Whakaari is a window into the geology of the Taupō rift, a model case for phreatic eruption risk, and a tragic example of how tourism economics can outrun safety judgement. It is also a striking, beautiful island that few will ever see at close range again.
On the map
Open the map and find Whakaari about 50 kilometres north of Whakatāne in the Bay of Plenty. The Taupō volcanic zone runs inland to the southwest through Tongariro National Park.