White Island Tours running trips to Moutohorā Whale Island

Wednesday, 15 January 2020

White Island Tours has resumed trips to the Moutohorā Whale Island sanctuary after suspending all tours following the eruption of Whakaari White Island.

White Island Tours is back in business five weeks after the fatal volcanic eruption on Whakaari White Island.

The company suspended all tours in the wake of the disaster which killed 18 people and left a further two missing presumed dead.

But on Wednesday its website was advertising boat tours to the Moutohorā Whale Island sanctuary to view native birds and seals, and swim at a hot water beach.

Ngati Awa Group Holdings, which owns White Island Tours has been tight lipped about its future plans, previously refusing to comment on when and where it might resume tours from its Whakatane base.

White Island Tours employs about 60 staff in peak season to run its cafe, motel, and boat trips. One of its guides, Hayden Marshall-Inman, is still missing presumed dead after the volcanic eruption on Whakaari White Island on December 9.

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The White Island Tours website now makes no reference to the eruption five weeks ago which occurred while 47 guides and visitors were on the active volcano.

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Chief executive Tracey Hook told Stuff last week that it was committed to keeping the 60 staff employed until the end of January.

She said the Ngati Awa board was to discuss future developments this week, but the company would not comment when approached on Wednesday.

Companies offering tourists an opportunity to view Whakaari from the air have also been considering resuming flights and GeoNet website is recommencing the island camera feed .

The White Island Tours website makes no reference to the tragedy which unfolded when 47 people on guided walks of the active White Island volcano were caught out by a sudden eruption on December 9.

The bodies of two of the dead, tour guide Hayden Marshall-Inman and Australian teenager Winona Langford, have still not been recovered.

The company website says the Moutohorā trips, costing $99 for adults and $59 for children, include a 4-hour guided tour of one of New Zealand's most protected wildlife sanctuaries

Last year a 73-year-old man on guided walk of Moutohorā died after falling about seven metres off a track onto volcanic rock, but Worksafe said it was taking no enforcement action after investigating the incident.

The Department of Conservation, which owns the island, said it had found no fault with the operator or its own management.

WorkSafe is also conducting an investigation into the circumstances around the White Island disaster.

Whakatane mayor Judy Turner said it was great to hear that White Island tours was resuming boat trips to Moutuhorā and she was sure the activity would be done in a 'thoughtful and considered way.'

Late last year the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment announced a fund of more than $4 million to support affected Whakatane businesses in the aftermath of the eruption.

Turner said it would probably be a year before the true extent of the financial impact was known, but it felt like domestic tourism, which Whakatane relied heavily on over the summer, had held up well.

However, about 80 per cent of those doing Whakaari White Island trips had been international visitors, she said.