Curtis Island, New Zealand

Curtis Island Crater

Curtis Island

Curtis Island (left) and Cheeseman Island from north.
Map
Geography
Coordinates	30°33′S 178°34′W / 30.55°S 178.567°W / -30.55; -178.567
Archipelago	Kermadec Islands
Area	40 ha (99 acres)
Highest elevation	130 m (430 ft)
Country
New Zealand

Curtis Island is an island in the southwest Pacific (located at 30°33′S 178°34′W / 30.55°S 178.567°W / -30.55; -178.567). It is a volcanic island with an elevation of 130 m (427 ft) and an area of 40 ha (99 acres). Together with neighboring Cheeseman Island it belongs to the Kermadec Islands. Politically it is part of New Zealand. The Kermadec Islands lie halfway between North Island, New Zealand and Tonga at approximately the latitude of the Gold Coast, Queensland.

Lieutenant John Cliffe Watts, RN was the first European to visit the Macauley and Curtis Islands — which he named after two of his officers — on the Lady Penrhyn in the late 1780s. Count von Luckner, Commander of the German raider Seeadler during the First World War, stopped off at Curtis Island to replenish his stores from the castaway depot left there by the New Zealand Marine Department (for the use of shipwrecked crews) while attempting to make good his escape from New Zealand to South America.

The island is a breeding site for the Masked Booby.^[1]

See also

• List of islands of New Zealand
• List of volcanoes in New Zealand

References

1. ^ Greene et al. (2004).

• Greene, T.C.; Scofield, R.P.; & Dilks, P.J. (July 2004). Status of Kermadec red-crowned parakeets and the likely effects of a proposed kiore eradication programme. Macauley Island expedition July 2002. DOC Science Internal Series 179. Wellington: Department of Conservation, New Zealand. ISBN 0–478–22579–2. http://www.doc.govt.nz/upload/documents/science-and-technical/dsis179.pdf. 

External links

• Kermadec Marine Reserve (New Zealand Department of Conservation)