The Volcano: Rescue From Whakaari Review

I believe that I learned about this story on the Mr. Ballen podcast. He included a video of the incident that was captured from a video camera. “The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari” is a documentary on Netflix that is a must watch. Basically, a group of people go on an excursion which includes not only an up close and personal view of an active volcano; they also get to walk around and up to the active volcano. What could go wrong? Everything!!!

This event occurs December 2019. A group of tourists are on their way to visit White Island in New Zealand. The biggest attraction was the Whakaari volcano. The start of the shows how beautiful the island is. Bright colors, beautiful landscaping and oh yeah, stem.  It’s already hot and steaming which in my opinion should alert you to abort the mission but the tour continued on to the crater. This volcano is huge. Crater lake is apparently just the tip of a bigger unit that is under water; a stratovolcano (a conical volcano built up by many layers of hardened lava and tephra). The elevation at the highest point is 1053 feet and the island about 800 acres.  

Some of the tourist were alarmed but I’m sure they felt that the tour guide wouldn’t take them on a tour if it weren’t safe, right? Another sign that they should not have gone to the island is that there were no natives visiting that island. Why are the natives not visiting? Because it’s an active steaming volcano.  Oh, and another fact; this volcano is shown to erupt at night which is shown on cameras set up on the island. However, it’s was still a popular tourist attraction. 

We get first hand account of what happened that day from a few of the families that took the tour. Matt and Lauren Urey, American tourists who were on their honeymoon. They purchased a cruise which included trips to Australia to New Zealand. Then we are introduced to Jesse Langford, an Australian tourist, who traveled with his younger sister and parents on the same cruise line. 

The Whakaari trip was a part of an excursion as part of the cruise attractions. In the description of the excursion made is seem like a harmless hike up a mountain which led to a steaming crater and colorful streams. Nowhere did it note that this trip could be dangerous. I mean, who wouldn’t take an opportunity to view an active volcano. Actually, because of my trust issues, I’d stay on the boat and watch the volcano from afar. 

A few more tourists on the same trip. The island was pretty quiet. There wasn’t a lot of traffic, just a nice beautiful day for sightseeing. Several boats were touring the White Island. There were local tour guides on the trip, that included Kelsey Waghorn, Hayden Marshal-Inman and his brother Mark. The trip to the island was choppy due to the huge swells.  It took an hour and a half to get to the island from the mainland. Another option was to take a helicopter. The introduce Brian Depauw, a commercial helicopter pilot who provides tours. 

As one of the boats, the Phoenix arrived, they tourist noticed that the island was hot. The tourist walked the path between two tour guides. Brian arrives with his tour, landing on the island around the same time. More boats arrived to an old jetty on the other side of the island. The tourist on that tour noticed the strong smell of sulfur. We get a variety of points of views. We are shown the crater that is bubbling with a thick muddy pool. 

At one point, the tour guide describes the lake to be beautiful and blue, this day, it was white. It was explained away as possibly having a volcanic episode with cause ash to land on it which was normal. Then someone asked when the last eruption was, and they state that it’s like every two or three years.  The last time before the trip was 2016, it’s now the end of 2019.  Now some of the tourist are getting alarmed. They considered the island to be a level two risk, but what does that mean? It’s a high risk of activity because level three is an eruption. Insert big side eye emoji. 

Some of the tourist were getting ready to leave and that is when they tell the tourist that all over eruptions had been occurring overnight. So that’s why they were not concerned about an eruption during the day. Yeah, like volcanos have watches. The math ain’t mathing here. 

There are still about 47 people still touring the island when the Phoenix pulls off.  Shortly after they see that a huge plum of smoke bellows up. At the same time, the tourist on the island are still snapping pictures. On their way down, it happens. Meanwhile, Brian, the helicopter pilot just made it to the crater. More steam is spewing out but he tells them they can’t stay long. Then a black cloud shoots out, no sound, and they start taking pictures and videos. Now it’s rumbling. Time to go ya’ll! 

Now everyone is in panic mode, they are running away. Netflix shows the actual video from someone’s personal video camera. You can hear everything from the people to the rumbles of the volcano. You can also hear the rocks falling to the ground. An ash cloud could be seen rolling down the mountain. The people on the boat are taken into the boat for safety. Then Brian, the pilot knew they couldn’t make it to the helicopter and got his tour to jump into the water to save them from being burned by the steam. We also get to hear those sounds from a camera phone. 

A total of sixteen people died at the crater but two people were missing but presumed dead. The American tourists survived but were severely burned. The Australian tourist, Jesse Langford, lost his whole family. People on the island experienced burns from steam that was 200 degrees. You could cook meats at that temperature. The helicopter that was on the island was destroyed. 

Some boats returned to save the people stranded on the island after the eruption. This documentary will give you anxiety. Unfortunately, people lost their lives on what was supposed to be a short nature hike. I highly recommend you add this to your Netflix queue. You get great pictures and great videos of the event. The first-hand account of what happened that day was put together very well. 

I give this documentary, 5 out of 5 acorns.