2001 Ross Dependency Penguins

         The 2001 Ross Dependency stamps, issued on the 7th November 2001, featured penguins found in the Ross Dependency area. On the same day New Zealand also issued a set of six stamps, also featuring penguins, 2001 Penguins. but this time penguins from around New Zealand. There have been occasions when these two sets have been confused but it must be remembered that they are independent of one another, released by two different postal administrations.  

         But it also must be acknowledged that these two stamp issues are also linked, through their designer, their printer and their subject of penguins.

The six value Ross Dependency Penguin issue.

2001 Penguins

         On the same day that the Ross Dependency issued a six value set on the Penguins of Antarctica, New Zealand issued a six value set on the penguins of New Zealand. While these sets were issued by different postal administrations they must be considered as related. They were issued on the same day, had the same designer and the same printer. Ross Dependency Postal Services are actually run by the “Ross Dependency Agency”, located at a post office in Christchurch as a agency of the New Zealand Postal Service (NZ Post).

2001 Ross Dependency - Penguins. 

Up to 80 per cent of a penguins life is spent in the ocean where their stiff, paddle-like flippers, torpedo-shaped bodies and heavy bones are ideally adapted for speed and deep diving. While other birds take to the skies, these fly through the water, cleverly camouflaged from beneath and above with their white bellies and dark backs.

2005 - 2009 Stamp Exhibitions.

During the 1980s NZ Post began issuing special collectors miniature sheets to be sold at the stamp exhibitions they attended. Usually, these miniature sheets featured stamps that were currently on sale at that time, in some cases, they were overprints of existing miniature sheets but since they were actually separate issues we have decided to feature them together in this series of posts.

This post will show all the special issues for stamp exhibitions that NZ Post attended during the period 2000 - 2004. It is most likely that we will not feature most of these issues on their own pages so they have been collected here.

  

1984 - 1986 Vintage Transport.

          During the 1980s NZ Post released three stamp issues with vintage transport themes. We have decided to combine these on a single page for ease of viewing and comparing the three sets. The first, featuring passenger ferries, was issued in 1984; the second, featuring trams, was issued in 1985; the third, came in 1986, featuring motorcycles. 

 

Ferries.                                                    Trams.                                                Motorcycles.

You may wish to view the earlier 1970s Vintage Transport Issues.

1988 Whales

Since 1978 whales have had total protection under New Zealand law but whaling once flourished on our coasts. The coastal waters and oceans surrounding New Zealand were rich in whale life and attracted hunters from the Northern Hemisphere as early as the late 1700s. Shore whaling stations were first established in New Zealand in Cook Strait and Fiordland areas in the 1800s, with the hunters preying on migrating right whales and humpbacks. The whalers were some of New Zealand's earliest settlers and their exploits make a graphic chapter in the nation's history. The last New Zealand whaling operation ended in 1964.

2010 Ancient Reptiles of New Zealand

In 2010 New Zealand Post celebrated our incredible extinct natural heritage with an issue of five oversized stamps and five amazing coins. These species disappeared 65 million years ago, but with a little help from New Zealand Post, you can see what it might have been like to meet them face to face. A hundred million years ago, our land formed the eastern margin of the southern super-continent of Gondwanaland. Separated by ocean, ‘Zealandia’ had its own group of dinosaurs, pterosaurs (flying reptiles) and giant marine reptiles that thrived here for 20 million years.