Kermadec Islands - Definition and Overview

The Kermadec Islands form an island arc in the Pacific Ocean. They became a dependency of New Zealand in 1887 and lie over 750km north east of North Island.

The group divides into the northern islands: Raoul or Sunday Island, the largest, and the Herald Isles; and the southern islands: Macauley Island, Curtis, Cheeseman Island, Haszard Islet and L'Esperance Rock.

The New Zealand authorities have declared the islands a nature reserve, and the sea around them a marine reserve. They are known for their birdlife. Raoul and Curtis are both active volcanoes, and they experience many earthquakes.

Polynesian people settled the Kermadec Islands in around the fourteenth century (and perhaps previously in the tenth century), but when Europeans reached the area in 1788 they found no inhabitants. Settlers lived on the islands from the early nineteenth century until 1937; since then only a government meterological and radio station has represented human habitation.

External links

• Department of Conservation (http://www.doc.govt.nz/Conservation/Marine-and-Coastal/Marine-Reserves/040~Kermadec/index.asp), government department responsible for marine reserves.
• Heritage Expeditions on the Kermadec Islands (http://www.heritage-expeditions.com/index.cfm/Destinations/Kermadec%20Islands/Kermadec%20Islands)