The first Australian witness in a trial over a deadly New Zealand eruption says tour guides never mentioned any potential dangers until they were on the volcanic island.
The Auckland District Court today began its third day of hearings for a WorkSafe NZ prosecution relating to the Whakaari-White Island disaster that resulted in the deaths of 22 people, including 14 Australians, in 2019.
The island’s owners, the Buttle family, ID Tours and Tauranga Tourism Services Limited have been accused of breaching health and safety regulations.
Annie Yongan Lu, of Sydney, gave evidence at the trial via video link from Australia.
Lu was aged 26 when she booked a holiday cruise with her then 56-year-old mother, Alice Xioman Zhang, from Sydney to New Zealand.
“We looked at brochures of day trips and saw White Island and we decided to go,” she told police in a 2020 video interview that was played to the court.
Lu said the trip to the island with her mother started exactly like every other excursion from the cruise.
“Nothing was really explained to us going on to the bus or the boat (about) the possibility of an explosion,” she said.
Lu said she followed the advice in the brochure’s short blurb and wore enclosed shoes with gym leggings and a hooded jumper.
She said their tour group was given a safety briefing once on the island and told to wear hard hats, but gas masks were optional for the sulphur smell.
“They mentioned ‘level two’ but said it was nothing to worry about … there was no explanation of what level two was,” Lu said.
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The trial has heard that volcanic activity level two is the highest alert level not involving an eruption.
Lu and her mother stopped for one last photo of the crater when the volcano started to erupt just after 2pm on December 9.
“All of a sudden, I saw these black clouds pop up … I heard, ‘Oh my god, everybody run’,” she said.
Lu said she realised they could not outrun the eruption and she and her mother dived behind a rock before being hit by two or three waves of heat and pain.
“I remember mum screaming my name and everything went black as this big wind that knocked us for six and I was in so much pain and screaming into the gas mask,” she said.
After boarding a tour boat with her mother, Lu ran her hands under a tap and saw that her nails were cracking and her skin was bubbling and falling off.
The boat’s crew cut off her melted leggings and she moved to the front of the vessel with the most badly injured people.
“I realised I could not bend my legs or sit down … I started freaking out,” Lu said.
The trial is also due to hear from Australians Jesse Langford and Stephanie Browitt, who were badly burned and had relatives killed by the eruption.
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