Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index D'Urville Island is a small island in the Marlborough Sounds along the northern coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It was named for the French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville. The island is separated from the mainland by the French Pass Passage, through which water passes at up to eight knots (14 km/h) at each tide. D'Urville investigated the passage for several days in 1827, and damaged his boat passing through it. See other islands of New Zealand. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.