On the 9th of December 2019 two tourist boats brought a number of tourists to White Island, (Te Puia Whakaari), an active volcano off the coast of Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. Ever wonder what it might be like looking into the crater of an active volcano that could erupt at any moment? Yeah I’m not exactly going there either. Anyways disregarding any possibility of things going wrong the extreme tourists visit the crater, which contains an acidic lake and which gives off a hell of a lot of steam, you also get some bubbling mud pools on the way. Unfortunately for the tourists Whakaari picks this moment to erupt, the documentary follows events leading up to the eruption, the eruption itself, and the aftermath, both immediate and a number of months after. Let’s get down to it.

White Island is a stratovolcano, meaning high sides, a crater at the top, and explosive eruptions. The Island is largely undersea, and access is via the sea, or by helicopter, to the volcano cone which is sticking up from the surrounding ocean, 48 kilometres away from the mainland. Anyways the volcano has been active since its discovery back in the 18th century, and regularly erupts releasing superheated gas, ash, and rock. Nope we are not talking lava, but nothing can be discounted in nature right? Anyways the Island was an extreme tourist attraction in New Zealand, which is kind of weird considering the art of predicting eruptions isn’t exactly mature at the moment. We’ll get back to this folk.

The plot of the documentary is pretty standard historic presentation, albeit with actual video footage of events, hey tourists and mobile phones right. We get the tourist boats headed to the island, interspersed with survivors talking to camera, we get visuals of the White Island crater, which shows some stunning scenes to be honest, then the actual eruption which caught me by surprise – one hell of a force of nature there, followed by rescue efforts. Notably people in higher authority had called off the air ambulance folks due to the dangerous environment and situation, leaving survivors to be rescued on two boats and three charter helicopters. I was surprised by the number of people able to be rescued, though a number of dead bodies were left behind till later retrieval by army elements. I think two bodies still remained undiscovered to this day. We finally get a number of people who survived the eruption talking about their medical treatments and the impact events on the 9th December have had on their lives since. It’s fairly involved, covers all aspects of the day’s events, and includes close ups of the actual eruption. We talking a pyroclastic flow there, or was it just me. For those with a faint heart be warned, there are graphic shots of the injuries survivors suffered during their ordeal.

I should point out here, and it’s something the documentary doesn’t cover, was the decision to call off air ambulance and other possible rescue and recovery options was the correct decision in the situation. There were corrosive gases present, dangerous to aircraft etc., and there was the ever present possibility that the actual eruption was simply a prelude to a larger main eruption. I’m currently undertaking medical studies and as part of this was required to do a two day first aid course. They are at pains in this course to point out you do not put yourself in danger under any circumstance, even if it might cost another person their life. This is a hard and fast rule. The documentary is at fault for not covering this aspect.

One of the uplifting parts of the documentary, yes it’s not all doom and gloom, is a number of people who are not letting their near death experiences rule the rest of their lives. In particular, a young Australian tourist, Jesse Langford who lost all of his immediate family to the disaster and New Zealand tour guide Kelsey Waghorn are almost inspirational in this aspect. Good luck to both these people.

For certain people the documentary might be a tad too real to deal with. Yes, we are talking deaths and the impact this has had on those who knew the victims. Actually the documentary should have involved warnings to this effect, but you know Yanks paying lip service to ethnic minorities is a thing. I’m not going to cover this aspect overly, just pointing out first nations people might want to give this one a miss. I will point out Pouroto Ngaropo does include those who died in Maori mythology, which may or may be some succour to those grieving their loses.

To the Elephant in the room, the blame game, which actually isn’t in the movie but has been playing out ever since 9th December shocked us all, well those of us Downunder at least. Anyways deaths involve so naturally someone has to be blamed, all human nature folks. If anything goes legal from this then to be honest the same requirements have to be extended to places like Taupo, Rotorua, Yellowstone in fact any geothermal attraction. Any of this places could explode into activity at any stage, hold onto your bum if currently reading from one of those locations. For the record, visiting White Island hasn’t been on the agenda since the eruption brought realisation of the inherent dangers extreme nature can poise. Make your own mind up, I kind of think it was not responsible to take people to an active volcano that has a danger level of 2.

I was surprised this documentary was made by the Seppos rather than being a local production. Seriously, raise your game New Zealand this should have been an obvious documentary for the locals to make, and moreover to question how it was allowed to happen in the first place. Anyways the documentary is interesting enough to keep the viewer’s attention, accurately presents the facts, but fails in questioning anything beyond the facts. Well worth catching in my opinion, especially for Kiwis, but there is also interest for the rest of us. Full recommendation folks, if you simply want to see a volcano erupt then you are in the right place, but there is emotional content here. The documentary is currently available on Netflix, not entirely sure if there is a disc version or other option for viewing