Whakat¯ane numb as community battles with crisis

It is an eruption that has shaken an Eastern Bay of Plenty community to the core, leaving it with sadness, uncertainty and tension.

A numbing disbelief hangs like a pall across the tight-knit community. People are dead, two bodies remain unaccounted for.

Others who were on the island are in critical condition, others are in serious condition.

Notes and drooping flowers are entwined in the wire fence on Muriwai Drive, for those who were affected by last Monday’s eruption.

‘‘Huia Whakaari has spoken ...’’ a note reads, ‘‘although we are grieving lost souls, I believe she is too. The rivers of green translucent tears pouring from her into Tangaroa show us this.’’

Whakaari is a powerful entity, a living presence whose vagarious moods inspire awe but at the same time, a deep reverence and respect.

The island’s odd coughs and splutters are normal for anyone who lives there but this time it is different. There is an overwhelming sense of support and kindness yet helplessness in the town.

Among this, unrest grows daily on what will happen next; people want answers, they want closure.

‘‘The tourism side is causing quite a bit of contention in the community. The focus has been firmly on recovering the bodies and treating those who are in hospital’’, Radio One Double X announcer Kathie Guy said.

‘‘We have lived with this live volcano in our backyard forever.

‘‘We know it is active. We are used to it.

‘‘No-one is thinking like that any more – quite a shift in attitude.

‘‘Most people are still in total disbelief. We have never had this kind of disaster before.’’

Event manager and resident Jo Finlay said locals ‘‘felt broken’’ by the eruption.

‘‘Whakaari is such a big part of our town and our life but now we have got this different feeling towards it.

‘‘We are just so hurt and shellshocked that something like this could happen,’’ Finlay said.

‘‘There is no fear towards the island, just hurt.

‘‘I have been out there a couple of times; it is an eerie place. You feel like you are on the Moon.

‘‘Which is why it is such an experience for people.’’

Finlay believed there would be a divide on what would happen next in terms of visiting the island.

‘‘I don’t think anyone can think about the ‘what next’ until we deal with ‘the now’.

The eruption ‘‘hit very close to home’’ for former charter boat operator John Baker, who has witnessed the island’s fury before.

‘‘We have had stones dumped on us about five times and we have been under many ash clouds. This was normal for about 10 years when the island was really active. We would wake up in the morning and the boats would be covered in two to three inches of ash.

‘‘Once we were out diving and laying a memorial when the island erupted on us.

‘‘I witnessed one of the biggest electrical storms ever seen, during an eruption about 20 years ago. We had anchored up for the night and we heard this pumping sound and could not figure out where it was coming from. When we looked outside the boat the ash cloud was already a halfkilometre radius around White Island but the cloud was still

Radio One Double X announcer

‘‘Most people are still in total disbelief.’’ Kathie Guy

going up in the air. Then it all started falling, ash, gravel, scoria.

‘‘We did not even have time to haul the anchor, we broke it out and raced back to Whakata¯ ne.

‘‘It was the most horrific lightning and thunder storm I have ever seen in my whole life, it was all in the ash.

‘‘It was the closest to have ever been,’’ he said.

Baker said stepping on to the island was always a risk.

‘‘The bottom line is, it is an active volcano, it is unpredictable and it is all chance whether you get caught on there or not.’’

Baker said the distance from the jetty to the crater was about 500 metres with strict instructions to stick to the path at all times. hell

IWhakaari is also a ‘‘sacred site’’ as the 10 bodies of miners who died in a lahar in 1914 were never found, the only living survivor was the camp cat, Peter the Great.

Throughout the years Baker has also laid several memorials on the island through requests of families.

‘‘One of my mates died a while back and the family requested that I took his ashes out there. We climbed up as high as we could and put them in a little crevice that overlooks the crater. ‘‘I think this will divide the community to a certain extent [on whether tours should go ahead in the future], but time dulls things.

‘‘People forgot what happened on the island in 1914 and then there was the Department of Conservation worker who was killed on Raoul Island as well. I don’t know where this will end up.’’

Baker said he had told previous operators to take people around the island on a boat, rather than set foot on it.

‘‘It is the excitement and thrill that draws the people.’’

Senior pastor at Liberty Life Church Grant Bateson said the community was there to ‘‘serve and to help’’.

‘‘People are so wanting to help. ‘‘Typical Whakata¯ ne, typical New Zealand. It is still surreal, it is still very ‘just happened’.

‘‘It is hard to know what the town is like. It is a real unknown at this point, 18,000 people come in on these boats, so what is going to happen in the future is anyone’s guess.’’

Bateson said he did not believe the latest eruption would divide the community on whether tours would continue.

‘‘People have been going to that volcano for years, knowing it is active. They go there for that reason, whether it is the risk or the adventure.

‘‘I think when you get tragedy, when you get adversity, they offer opportunities for communities to really band together, rather than division.’’