Hello and welcome to the very first weird wild world. A weekly series that takes a look at the power of nature. From natural disasters to rare and strange phenomena, we will take a look at the wonder and weirdness of our planet.

I'm the aluminati and today we're going to start off the series by discussing New Zealand's White Island eruption.

What can I say? I'm a sucker for volcanoes.

We're not only going to talk about this fatal eruption, but the history of the volcano itself as well as the tourism surrounding it.

But before we dive right into this though let me put a content warning right up front.

This is not some super exciting passive look at how volcanoes form and explode.

There is a very sad story associated with what happened at White Island and this is going to be quite serious.

We're starting out this series a little bit more graphic

than other ones, but I would say that this story absolutely

stuck out with me and I had to dig into the past

to lead up to what happened.

So if you're not in the mood for this topic,

I completely understand it will be an emotional video.

After looking at all the survivor footage and interviews,

it definitely had me very shaken.

But with that being said, let's get into it. Wachari or White Island is an active volcano about 30 miles from the east coast of the

North Island of New Zealand located in the Bay of Plenty.

It was cited and named by Captain James Cook in 1796, but there's an interesting little

legend about how the island was actually formed in Maori folklore as well.

According to one source, a great Tahunga spiritual leader decided to travel inland to explore the area.

While he and his travel companions had a rest on the eastern side of Lake

Taupo, he spotted a very beautiful mountain to the south. He decided he wanted to climb that mountain

...