The Kermadec Islands () are a subtropical island arc in the South Pacific Ocean northeast of New Zealand's North Island, and a similar distance southwest of Tonga. The islands are part of New Zealand. They are in total area and uninhabited, except for the permanently manned Raoul Island Station, the northernmost outpost of New Zealand. The islands are listed with the New Zealand outlying islands. The islands are an immediate part of New Zealand, but not part of any region or district, but instead an Area Outside Territorial Authority. Toponymy The islands were named after the Breton captain Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec, who visited the islands as part of the d'Entrecasteaux expedition in the 1790s. The topographic particle "Kermadec" is of Breton origin and is a lieu-dit in Pencran in Finistère where ker means village, residence and madec a proper name derived from mad (which means 'good') with the suffix -ec, used to form adjectives indicating a property. The Māori name is Rangitāhua which is also used for Raoul island. History As indicated by their name for the Islands, Rangitahua – the Stopping-off Place, Polynesian people "stopped off" on the Kermadec Islands in around the 14th century (and perhaps previously in the 10th century). The first Europeans to reach the areaarriving onboard the Lady Penrhyn in May 1788found no inhabitants on these volcanic islands. British, American and Australian whaling vessels cruised offshore in the 19th century and often visited the islands in search of water, wood and food. The first such vessel on record was the whaler Fanny that visited Raoul Island in 1823. On 1 August 1886, HMS Diamond annexed the islands for the United Kingdom. European settlers have lived on the island for varying lengths of time, from the early nineteenth century until 1937, growing food for the whalers. The Thomas Bell family settled on the island from 1878 to 1914. One of the Bell daughters, Bessie Dyke, recounted the family's experience to writer Elsie K. Morton who published their story in 1957 as, Crusoes of Sunday Island. The islands were annexed to New Zealand in 1887 according to one source. However the Encyclopaedia of New Zealand states the annexation happened in 1886. Raoul Island Station The Station consists of a government meteorological and radio station, and a hostel for Department of Conservation officers and volunteers, that has been maintained since 1937. It lies on the northern terraces