Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Katee Shanks: I'll never look at Whakaari the same way again

Katee Shanks
By Katee Shanks
Multimedia journalist·Rotorua Daily Post·
9 Jan, 2020 01:13 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

The sight of Whakaari/White Island puffing away on the horizon is familiar to everyone in Whakatāne, but it has taken on a new meaning. Photo / File

The sight of Whakaari/White Island puffing away on the horizon is familiar to everyone in Whakatāne, but it has taken on a new meaning. Photo / File

COMMENT

Every morning I get up and look out the window at the sea.

Some mornings she is a stunning blue, others she is whisked with whitecaps, but each time I wonder if she will return Hayden Marshall-Inman and Winona Langford to those who love them.

It's hard to put into words the feelings of the past month.

READ MORE:
• White Island eruption: The dead, the missing and the injured
• White Island eruption: Seventeenth victim dies at Middlemore Hospital
• White Island survivor who suffered horrific burns is 'up and alert'
• Fake online videos of White Island eruption upset Kiwis

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

I didn't know any of the people who lost their lives on December 9 when Whakaari/White Island erupted but I do know family members of our local guides.

In spite of not knowing them personally, the past month has bought feelings no different to the loss of a loved one. And I know, from talking to others within the community, I'm not alone.

While life goes on, it's in those quiet moments when your mind turns to the events of December 9 and the knowledge families are in mourning while others are supporting loved ones on a journey of recovery that you know will be long and painful.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

It's the downtime when I think about the trip back to the mainland for those who had suffered burns and what they had to endure, and for those uninjured who were trying to comfort them. I think about the emergency service staff – on the scene at the wharf, at the hospital and now in the burns units – and what they saw on the day.

The Whakatāne Wharf after the eruption on White Island on December 9. Photo / File
The Whakatāne Wharf after the eruption on White Island on December 9. Photo / File

I think about how hot it was on the afternoon of December 9.

Discover more

Fire risk warning: Don't be fooled by cooler summer

10 Jan 09:42 PM
New Zealand

White Island: Story behind the skin grafts coming for burn victims

12 Jan 06:31 PM
Opinion

Sulphur fumes and kingfish: On board the first charter boat out after White Island

14 Jan 06:30 AM
New Zealand

Just Jeans assistant 'yelled at' doctor's toddler, apology sought

17 Jan 02:25 AM

As well as anger at an active volcano and grief at the lives lost and maimed, there is also perhaps a feeling of responsibility – like Whakaari/White Island is in our patch and we were unable to stop her doing what she did.

I have heard people asking if we, as an adventure tourism town, had become complacent when thinking about Whakaari. Had we forgotten the destruction an active volcano had the potential to create?

Had three decades of uneventful visits to the island dulled our senses to the risk?

The mood of the town is also difficult to describe. We have been a little more subdued this summer, I think. Whakatāne and especially Ōhope, have hosted the annual summer visitors but something feels different. The usual frivolity feels somehow suppressed.

A couple embrace at the gate to Whakatāne Wharf the day after the eruption. Photo / File
A couple embrace at the gate to Whakatāne Wharf the day after the eruption. Photo / File

Perhaps people have taken time to reflect on what has happened. Perhaps the mood is sombre out of respect. I don't know, but it is different.

Tuesday's drowning hit like a sledgehammer.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

That may have been because, like on December 9, people were at the Whakatāne Heads watching events unfold and feeling helpless as there was nothing they could do.

Another rāhui has been placed over our water, a reminder that another life has been lost.

There are plans in place for a monument, perhaps similar to that created for Pike River, to acknowledge the lives lost on Whakaari/White Island.

One day we may get to hear from those who survived the eruption and also learn of the heroic acts that happened that day – because you know there will be many.

Tourists are taken from White Island after the eruption. Photo / Michael Schade
Tourists are taken from White Island after the eruption. Photo / Michael Schade

But even after all that, I don't think I'll ever look at Whakaari/White Island the same way I did before December 9.

When she can be seen puffing away surrounded by stunning blue sea or whether we ever get to share her environment again, the volcano will always be a place that stole the lives of 19 people.

Those people may have understood the risks but none would have imagined they would never make it home.

- Katee Shanks is an NZME reporter based in Whakatāne

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Daily Post

NZ Super Fund-backed Kaingaroa Timberlands expands with Waikato land purchase

01 Jul 05:43 AM
Rotorua Daily Post

Zespri teams up with Dame Lisa Carrington

01 Jul 03:30 AM
Rotorua Daily Post

Compliance concern: Growers oppose proposed geothermal water regulations

01 Jul 12:00 AM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

NZ Super Fund-backed Kaingaroa Timberlands expands with Waikato land purchase

NZ Super Fund-backed Kaingaroa Timberlands expands with Waikato land purchase

01 Jul 05:43 AM

Kaingaroa Timberlands has bought 9200ha of forestry land in South Waikato.

Zespri teams up with Dame Lisa Carrington

Zespri teams up with Dame Lisa Carrington

01 Jul 03:30 AM
Compliance concern: Growers oppose proposed geothermal water regulations

Compliance concern: Growers oppose proposed geothermal water regulations

01 Jul 12:00 AM
Fresh weather warnings issued for BoP

Fresh weather warnings issued for BoP

30 Jun 11:29 PM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP