2017 The British & Irish Lions Tour

See our collection - Rugby on New Zealand Stamps.

          Every four years The British & Irish Lions tour the Southern Hemisphere, and in 2017 it’s New Zealand’s turn to host and compete in a series that captivates a nation. The series will begin in Whangarei on 3 June, and over the course of six weeks, ten matches will be played in seven different cities against eight different New Zealand teams.

          The British & Irish Lions rugby Tour was first dreamt up by a couple of English cricketers by the names of Alfred Shaw and Arthur Shrewsbury. The first Tour had the team playing 19 games of Aussie rules football, but the concept soon developed and the first officially sanctioned Tour to the Southern Hemisphere was organised in 1891. It wasn’t until 1899 that a Lions team was made up of players representing the four home nations of England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland - a tradition that continues today.

The British & Irish Lions - First Day Cover.

2017 The Darkest Hour 1917

2018  World War I  Commemorative Book Series.

Back to 2016 Courage & Commitment - 1916.              Forward to 2018 Back from the Brink - 1918.

By 1917, soldiers and loved ones had begun to lose faith in the ongoing war. Those on the Western Front were living in cold, wet trenches, and those at home were doing what they could to keep the home fires burning. New Zealand would experience the deadliest day in its military history when 845 lives were lost in the Belgian town of Passchendaele.

This sheet features the 6 x $1.00 stamps, the 2 x $2.20 stamps and the 2 x $2.70 stamps, all ten stamps of the Darkest Hour Issue.

2003 Ross Dependency Marine Life

        

Dive beneath the thick expanse of ice covering the continent of Antarctica, and you'll be amazed at the abundance and variety of colourful marine life that lives in this cold, forbidding environment. Sea snails, starfish, crabs, sponges and many more eke out a meagre existence many hundreds of metres below sea level - far from the inquisitive eyes of the world's scientists and researchers, eager to learn more about them.

1984 Endangered Wildlife

          From the days when New Zealand was first settled, it has lost proportionately more living species than any other nation in the world.  Our pioneers had no idea of the damage they were causing as they cleared the land - today however there are no excuses.
          Much of New Zealand's unique beautiful wildlife has gone.  Numbers decrease as hunting, disease and habitat destruction continue.  Legislation for the protection of New Zealand fauna is good by world standards, although it does not extend to a threatened species' habitat.
         Several of New Zealand's fascinating reptiles and a rare amphibian are featured on this special stamp issue.  The five stamps depict the rare Hamilton's Frog; Great Barrier Skink; Harlequin Gecko; Otago Skink; and the Gold-striped Gecko.

24c - Hamilton's Frog.

Hamilton's Frog - one of three species of native New Zealand frogs and regarded as being among the rarest amphibians in the world.  It is considered an unusual frog because it lives under stones and well away from standing water, depending on high humidity for its entire life cycle.

2002 Ross Dependency Discovery Expedition

         The British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, generally known as the Discovery Expedition, was the first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions since James Clark Ross's voyage sixty years earlier. Organised on a large scale under a joint committee of the Royal Society and the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), the new expedition carried out scientific research and geographical exploration in what was then largely an untouched continent.
          It launched the Antarctic careers of many who would become leading figures in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, including Robert Falcon Scott who led the expedition, Ernest Shackleton, Edward Wilson, Frank Wild, Tom Crean and William Lashly.
         Its scientific results covered extensive ground in biology, zoology, geology, meteorology and magnetism. The expedition discovered the existence of the only snow-free Antarctic valleys, which contain Antarctica's longest river. Further achievements included the discoveries of the Cape Crozier emperor penguin colony, King Edward VII Land, and the Polar Plateau (via the western mountains route) on which the South Pole is located. The expedition tried to reach the South Pole travelling as far as the Farthest South mark at a reported 82°17′S before being forced to turn back.