New Zealanders on holiday in Bali, Indonesia, could not get home because of a volcano on another island 150 km away. The volcano started erupting last week. The ash from the volcano made it too dangerous for planes to fly into Denpasar airport. However, yesterday an AirNZ special flight brought home 200 travellers. Many of them enjoyed their extra few days holiday.
Bali is a favourite holiday destination for New Zealanders and Australians. It is school holidays at the moment, a time when some families choose to go to a warm place for a holiday.
It is not the first time that AirNZ flights have been disrupted by volcanic eruptions. In 2011, ash from a volcano in Chile closed airports in New Zealand. However, in September 1995 a New Zealand volcano, Mt Ruapehu in the centre of the North Island, erupted and closed Wellington and Auckland airports. The eruption threw rocks into the air and frightened skiers on the mountain. The ski field closed for a while. Farmers at the base of the mountain had to move their animals to safe areas. Ash caused damage to the turbine blades at Rangipo power station.
Mt Ruapehu is our largest active volcano. Scientists monitor the temperature of water in the crater lake at the top of the mountain and can usually (but not always) predict when the volcano will erupt.
Vocabulary
• destination (n) – place you go to
• disrupted (v) – stopped or interrupted usual schedule
• base (n) – bottom of solid object
• turbine (n) – it turns to generate electricity
• monitor (v) – check often and carefully
• crater (n, here used as v) – hole in top of volcano where lava comes out.
Parts of speech
• volcano (n), volcanic (adj)
• erupt (v), eruption (n); disrupt (v), disruption (n); interrupt (v), interruption
• predict (v), prediction (n)
• choice (n), choose, chose, chosen (v)