Tourists from a previous trip make their way through the crater of the volcano on White Island off the coast of the Bay of Plenty. Photo / File
Tourists from a previous trip make their way through the crater of the volcano on White Island off the coast of the Bay of Plenty. Photo / File
COMMENT: There are many facets to the tragedy of White Island's Monday eruption.
Last week, GeoNet issued a Level 2 Volcanic Alert Level referring to elevated volcanic activity at Whakaari. At the bottom of that Tuesday alert, it read: "...eruptions can occur with little or no warning".
Questions about what peoplewere doing on the island after such volcanic unrest have been, and needed to be, asked and the answers will come in due course.
But the most important thing right now are the people affected by this tragedy.
As I write, officials are tracking down next-of-kin of those involved. People are in hospital with 90 per cent burns. A website has been set up listing people missing. My heart goes out to those thrust into such hurt and turmoil.
There's no manual for how to deal with such unimaginable trauma. People have been killed or left badly injured. And there are people who have loved ones injured or missing, presumed dead at a popular tourist attraction still considered to be too dangerous to step foot on.
And there's the rub.
It's not as if White Island volcanic activity was a secret. We all knew it. Considering most of it is underwater, perhaps we just didn't treat it as seriously as we could or should have.
White Island aerial view after Monday's volcanic eruption. Photo / George Novak
As part of its attraction, the island provided jobs and economic benefit in the local area. While grief and shock have spread internationally, the horror of what's happened has also hit close to home as local people have been confirmed are among those dead, hurt or missing.
What makes this particularly heartwrenching is many of those locals were working in the tourism sector. The very aim of their jobs is to help make memorable, once-in-a-lifetime adventures for visitors to our land.
The Bay of Plenty is a proud beacon for New Zealand tourism. Having worked in the sector, I know how tight-knit and collective the industry can be. Sharing the beautiful wonders of our region, for some, is akin to a proud mum showing off her child's dance routine.
To have such a treasured taonga responsible for such carnage is a bitter pill to swallow.
