Half an hour before Whakaari/White Island erupted, a tour group was standing at the edge of the main crater, peering into its sulphurous depths.
Among them were San Francisco tourist Michael Schade and his family. Panoramic footage shot from Schade's phone shows steam slowly drifting into an otherwise cloudless sky, the crater's edge cake in yellow, wind rumbling on his microphone.
The last photo Schade shot while on the island was timestamped 1:49pm.
Twenty minutes later, as the family waited onboard for their boat to leave, the volcano erupted, spewing steam and ash into the air.
READ MORE
• White Island volcano erupts in Bay of Plenty: 5 dead, 8 missing, 31 in hospital
• Worried family members register loved ones on Red Cross Family Links site
• White Island eruption caps off a decade of drama at angry volcano
Schade's first photos of the eruption was taken at 2.12pm, a minute after it began, showing thick grey clouds boiling into the sky.
/arc-anglerfish-syd-prod-nzme.s3.amazonaws.com/public/FD4RPWNVT5DJTB5Z7NKKZEOYLE.jpg)
It's now been confirmed there were two eruptions in quick succession.
Afterwards, the island is a different world. Ash blankets everything in a grey carpet up to half a metre thick, including a helicopter.
/arc-anglerfish-syd-prod-nzme.s3.amazonaws.com/public/GUOLHD4VMNBLXCGZ3OK6QUHAIE.jpg)
Schade's tour boat heads back in to the island, where a group of people can be seen stranded on a jetty, coated in ash.
There were two groups of tourists on the island; one was able to escape. A second group were standing close to where the eruption occurred.
/arc-anglerfish-syd-prod-nzme.s3.amazonaws.com/public/4Q6OTASWIVGF7KK5WKHBMMNUPU.jpg)
Photos Schade took at 2.24pm show rescuers from White Island Tours scrambling onto the jetty and helping people into their dinghy. The weighed-down dinghy heads back to the main tour boat, the tour guides' arms around the survivors.
/arc-anglerfish-syd-prod-nzme.s3.amazonaws.com/public/AU2C2FKAMFGIJN5EJELBI6RPCQ.jpg)
Schade tweeted his "endless gratitude" to the tour crew for stepping up as first responders.
That boat ride back to the mainland - tending to those rescued - was "indescribable", Schade tweeted.
He was "praying for them and their recovery".
/arc-anglerfish-syd-prod-nzme.s3.amazonaws.com/public/KVCBCYDFQVCWJCV6C3DIETTADA.jpg)
"[The] woman my mom tended to was in critical condition but seemed strong by the end," he wrote.
"The helicopters on the island looked destroyed."
At a press conference this morning, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed there had been two groups on the island - one that had been evacuated, and a second that was close to the eruption.
Of the 47 people on the island at the time of the eruption, 39 have come off the island.
Five of those people have died, while 31 are still in hospital and three have been discharged.
The remaining eight are still missing and presumed to have died. Aerial reconnaissance showed there was no sign of life remaining on the island this morning.
