Straight from city council A personal view, by Councillor Steve Morris

At time of writing it’s Monday evening and I’ve just returned from delivering flowers to the port gates with my eldest child. Ovation of the Seas is all lit up and spending an unscheduled night with us because it seems clear from both official and unofficial reports that a number of our cruise visitors were killed this week by the eruption on White Island.

At 2:20pm on Monday I was discussing a council meeting on speakerphone with councillor and geologist Andrew Hollis; as I reached the top of the Sandhurst Interchange, I could see an unusual plume and remarked to Andrew that I thought White Island was erupting. The sight reminded me of growing up on Papamoa Beach Road in the 1980s and seeing plumes when the volcano was more active.

As we looked up at the ship, I had another memory of looking past those same port gates as a child with my mother; she pointed out a hammer and sickle on a ship’s funnel. That ship was of course the Mikhail Lermontov and we watched it sail away not realising that in a few days’ time it’d be at the bottom of the Marlborough Sounds.

The ship looked beautiful tonight but as I looked along her hull and saw several dark cabins I wondered if they belonged to passengers that left those port gates this morning; happy and excited to experience a unique tour but didn’t return this afternoon.

It’s a reminder to cherish every moment because it’ll never come again.

Our community mourns with the families of the victims.