I Was a Volcano Tour Guide Until it Exploded

2.09 PM. Tour guide Jake Milbank was watching fellow guide Kelsey Waghorn address a group of almost 20 tourists in the moon-like crater of New Zealand’s White Island. She was up to the bit of the tour about the island’s freshwater streams, and how various minerals give each a different flavour. She pointed to the water in one and explained that it tasted a bit like lemon juice, while the other contained so much iron that it tasted like blood.

2.10 PM. It was only a small group that day, mostly Australians; a few Americans. It was to be a shorter tour too. The island had been on Alert Level 2 due to unusual levels of seismic activity over the last few months, which made the crater a little more exciting for the tourists, but was just…