The mayor of Whakatāne has has said she would like to see the resumption of tours to White Island once bodies of the dead have been recovered and it is safe for the public to return.
Judy Turner cried while discussing the disaster and the delays to the mission to retrieve bodies, and when asked how she was doing, replied “not well”.
Turner’s usually placid office in central Whakatāne hummed with activity as police, military and government officials crowded the hallways, plotting out how and when it will be possible to land on the volcanic island – where the alert level increased on Wednesday – and retrieve the eight bodies of suspected victims from Monday’s eruption.
Outside Turner’s office her husband Graham sat patiently while she spoke to the Guardian, holding a mug of tea he made for her.
“She’s barely sleeping,” he says from his perch on a creaky office chair, mug in hand, as his wife, who has been in the job less than two months, wipes tears from her cheeks.
Turner told the Guardian that she, like the families, was “frustrated” at the time being taken to retrieve the bodies but could understand their removal was a “delicate process” with remains needing to be carefully preserved for formal identification by the coroner.
“Yes I am [frustrated] but I feel that because I am dealing with people who are waiting for loved ones, and how long can you ask them to wait?” Turner said. “The families are understandably beside themselves with the desperate need to get their loved ones off.”
Turner said that once the bodies were retrieved she wanted tours on the island to resume. Whakatāne is known as the “gateway” to White Island and tourism is the mainstay of the local economy.
“It’s been something very iconic and it’s been an effective part of New Zealand’s tourism story,” Turner said.
“If it is safely able to continue that would be fantastic. It is part of an adventure tourism package. New Zealand has tended to specialise in that type of tourism and the nature of adventure tourism is that there is a degree of risk.”
Despite months of heightened seismic activity on the island, Turner said Monday’s eruption still caught everyone by surprise: “Nobody saw it coming … it was very much business as usual.”
Dozens of local people have volunteered to go to the island to retrieve the bodies, with one local helicopter pilot who was instrumental in rescuing survivors on Monday saying he could complete a body retrieval mission in under 90 minutes.
But Turner said the local community must be patient and allow the police time to do their job. “The impression I’ve been given is it won’t be a case of just jumping off a helicopter and putting someone in the back of a chopper.”
“Those [chopper pilots] are some absolute heroes, but it’s not quite as straightforward as a body lying on the ground.”
