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. While the other islands and islets are smaller, several of them harbour important bird colonies. The Māori name is Rangitāhua which is also used for Raoul island. The Kermadec Islands are the visible surface of a chain of about 80 volcanoes, stretching for 2,600 km between Tonga and New Zealand. The Kermadec Islands Nature Reserve and Marine Reserve is the most remote area managed by DOC and can only be visited with a special permit. Raoul Island is the biggest of the group, which begins at the southernmost L’Esperance. 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 with the suffix -ec, used to form adjectives indicating a property.