2017 Matariki

    

      When in 2017 NZ Post didn't issue the annual Matariki stamp issue, I was a bit disappointed as I've come to enjoy each Matariki issue for their interesting and colourful stamps. I understand why they did this because two other Maori related issues were released that year. See 2017 He Tohu and 2017 Te Reo Maori - Maori Language. We don't want too much of a good thing, do we? In the absence of a Matariki issue, I have decided to add my own Matariki post looking at Matariki and some of the legends behind it. When I started this I was looking for a great page of stamps but I could only find two stamps that actually showed Matariki / The Pleiades, so I had to settle on a post using just these two stamps. 

2017 Platinum Wedding Anniversary

New Zealand Post has created this special commemorative stamp issue to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh’s platinum wedding anniversary. Over their 70 years of marriage, they have achieved many remarkable milestones, of which family feature prominently. The stamps capture some of these magical moments.

While the Queen and Prince Philip were engaged in 1946, their engagement was not formally announced to the world until the following year – 10 July 1947 – when Elizabeth turned 21.

On Thursday 20 November 1947, the royal couple were married in Westminster Abbey. Despite all their royal responsibilities, some of the most significant moments in their lives are family occasions. The births of their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are sure to have been among the highlights. The fourth generation of the royal family continues to grow, with another great-grandchild expected in the first half of 2018.

Together, the Queen and Prince Philip have broken many records. She is the longest-serving – and longest-living - sovereign in New Zealand’s history, and the first to visit this country while reigning. He is the longest-serving consort and the longest-lived male member of the royal family. They are the first royal couple to see three generations of successors to the throne. No other members of the royal family have ever celebrated a platinum wedding anniversary, which makes this a very rare and remarkable milestone by any standard.

2017 Royalpex National Stamp Exhibition

         Royalpex 2017, (24th - 26th November) was held in Hamilton this year and attracted stamp collectors and dealers from around the country. The national stamp exhibition showed works and collections from around the country. Sometimes known as a ‘half national’ due to it having less classes available than a typical national exhibition.

        The event was ran by the Royal Philatelic Society of New Zealand and was proudly sponsored by New Zealand Post. As an official sponsor, New Zealand Post had a central stand at the exhibition for those wishing to purchase stamps and coins, or arrange for the special daily cancellations to be applied to mail items.

       It was an impressive event, well worth the trip down from Auckland. It was the first time all five writers of this blog attended a stamp exhibition together. We stayed at a farm near Cambridge, driving up to the exhibition each day.

Special Exhibition Collectables.
In honour of the city this year’s show was held on Hamilton. New Zealand Post created two unique products featuring imagery of Hamilton in the background. The miniature sheet features the idyllic Waikato river and three stamps from the popular 2017 Recovering Native Birds issue. The First day cover shows an aerial shot of the city as it stretches away in the distance.

2017 Te Reo Maori - Maori Language.

       Now, this issue went in a direction I did not expect. Recently I did a post on te reo Maori (Maori Language) 1995 Maori Language. In that post, we looked at six different ways te reo Maori was used, all of which were in more formal or traditional ways. Another post I did earlier this year was on the 2011 Kapa Haka issue. While this stamp issue featured Maori performing arts, te reo Maori is an important part of that. Both issues are well worth a look and along with all my other posts on Maori subjects can be found via our New Zealand Maori index.

       We live in a changing world, English, my mother tongue, is changing to be used in different ways with new words coming into general use all the time. In the same way, if te reo Maori is to remain relevant, it needs to change and evolve to deal with a modern and changing world. 

       Which brings us to this issue. 10 stamps showing te reo Maori being used in ways that would not have been imagined only a few years ago. In this issue, the examples have mainly come from computers and electronic communications. Notice how many of these new words are descriptive in nature. This is consistent with te reo Maori where many traditional words were descriptions of objects or ideas too. I've followed with the captions the NZ Post used as they explain each stamp better than I could but while doing this post I've come to view te reo Maori in a different and more positive way.

2017 Grow Your Own / Sustainable New Zealand

          It was becoming clear that neither of our main blog writers was interested in this set so someone had to do a post for it. I kind of like the issue and understand the reasons behind it too. I can see the idea of getting people, particularly children, out into the garden growing things. In this case, vegetables that are easy to grow but will make a healthy choice to many meals. I can also see NZ Post, a company facing declining sales due to fierce competition from the internet, looking for ways they can generate interest in their products. So I took up this issue and ran with it.

            

      Domestic Version. (Seeds)                                   International Version (Non-Seeds)

2017 Christmas

        We often have visitors from Asia staying with us over the Christmas period. For them, a traditional Christmas is often something different, a new experience. So we go all out to celebrate it. 
        First off, the Christmas tree. I get our visitors into the car to head off to the Christmas tree farm. Of course, there is that tired old joke about having to run fast to catch them. "Especially the little Christmas trees, really fast ones," I tease them. Yes, I always get those confused looks too. "What's he going on about." 
        We drive up through the farm to the area they are harvesting and are met by a guy with a saw. I let my guests wander through the trees looking for that special one, the one with that perfect cone shape. Then the guys will cut it and we are on our way home. The next step is setting it up. Out comes the plastic bucket and some bricks to go in the bottom. Selected bits of firewood work well to wedge the tree into position and we can pour in the water. 
        Some Christmas wrapping paper is fitted around to hide the plastic bucket and then we are ready to start the decorations. Out come the boxes of lights and other things to hang on the tree and I stand back allowing our guests to do all the work. Finally, all the lights in the room are turned off and we switch on the tree lights. Coloured lights, shining and flashing among the other decorations on the tree.

       This stamp issue is about the traditional decorations used on Christmas Trees. There are eight stamps in all, five gummed stamps and three repeated in self-adhesive format. The purpose, stamps for people to place on their Christmas mail, both locally and overseas. The annual Christmas issue always goes on sale earlier enough for mail to reach its destination anywhere in the world before Christmas Day.

2017 Ross Dependency - Historic Huts.

Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton have had their names and their achievements forever immortalised in history. The heroic feats of both of these men helped to pave the way for future exploration and study of the icy continent in the Geographic South Pole. The huts left behind from their various explorations have now been taken into the care of the Antarctic Heritage Trust. A plan was made to restore and conserve the individual huts, each one needed weatherproofing and repairs of some sort. Terra Nova, the largest of the three huts took seven years to be fully repaired, and all of its 11,000 artefacts conserved.

2017 America's Cup

        In our house, we have a lot of passion about sport, particularly when New Zealand is competing overseas. We love to see New Zealand winning, jumping out of our seats and cheering as they do. As can be expected, we quickly caught 'Americas Cup Fever' and were closely following each race. I just loved those boats, (or were they low flying aircraft), the way the foiled across the water. Would love to ride in one. Would be an amazing experience.
        Now before the owner of this blog gets on my case I better mention something about stamps. Yes, Allan, I did notice the six stamps on this miniature sheet. There is not much more we can say about the stamps other than that they show the Team NZ boat in action. The main photo in the centre shows the presentation for the cup to our team.

The America's Cup sheet, with six $2.70 stamps, was issued on the 3rd of July 2017. No first-day covers were produced.

2017 Recovering Native Birds.

         New Zealand’s native birds have a unique history in terms of how and why they adapted into the mostly flightless species we are so well acquainted with today. A predominant lack of mammalian predators in the early days of their evolution meant that many species began to grow larger and lost the ability to fly. With the main predator being other birds, many native species also evolved without the instinct to run from trouble.

         This posed a huge problem when the arrival of humans brought with it the arrival of mammalian predators such as rats, cats and stoats, all of which still pose a threat to our native species today.

         This stamp issue focuses on five native bird species that have been brought back from the brink of extinction thanks to the hard work of agencies such as the Wildlife Service and the Department of Conservation. Their great work has seen them go on to become world leaders in bird conservation. 

2017 The Great Kiwi Road Trip.

The tea towel and the sheet of stamps showing the Great Kiwi Road trip.

2017 New Zealand Surf Breaks

        New Zealand sits right in the cross hairs of the Roaring Forties, leaving it exposed to the rolling swell that boils up from turbulent Antarctic storms. New Zealand’s tiny land mass with vast stretches of epic coastline has made it somewhat of a surfer’s paradise - minus the constant warm weather and coconut trees! The New Zealand Surf Breaks stamp issue takes a look at some of New Zealand’s most popular surf breaks - from the long peeling waves at Piha to the frigid waters along the Dunedin coast.

        Each of the five stamps in this issue features one of New Zealand’s prime surfing spots, with dramatic images captured by some of New Zealand’s top surf photographers. The North Island is represented by two of New Zealand’s most well-known surf spots, Piha Bar in Piha and Manu Bay in Raglan, as well as the Waiwhakaiho River mouth in Taranaki along Surf Highway 45. The South Island is represented by Mangamaunu in Kaikoura and Aramoana Spit in Dunedin, both producing world-class breaks in the cooler southern waters.

2017 He Tohu

      He Tohu is a remarkable new permanent exhibition in the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa in Wellington, that opened on 20 May 2017. It sheds new light on three iconic constitutional documents that shape our nation: 1835 He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni - Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes of New Zealand, 1840 Te Tiriti o Waitangi - Treaty of Waitangi and the 1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition - Te Petihana Whakamana Pōti Wahine.

    ( It came as a surprise when reading the March Campbell Paterson Newsletter, I discovered that NZ Post listed this issue as their 2017 Matariki Issue on a list of issues for that year. After the many great issues in that series, I'd certainly see these three stamps as a step backwards. Since NZ Post do not mention Matariki in their website notes on this issue, I have not decided if it should be included in my Matariki collection.    Allan )

Matariki - Maori New Year.

See our index New Zealand Maori.  

2017 Definitives

Definitive Tour

Back to 2016 Scenic Definitives.                Forward to 2018 Scenic Definitives.

    While New Zealand Post has worked hard to keep postage rates as low as possible, an annual decline in mail volumes has resulted in a review of the costs of our products and services.

      From 1 July 2017 FastPost will increase from $1.80 to $2.30 for a medium letter, from $2.80 to $3.30 for large letters and from $3.80 to $4.30 for oversize letters. To meet these changes, New Zealand Post is issuing two new scenic definitive stamps for the $2.30 and $4.30 denominations. There is already an existing scenic definitive stamp for $3.30 which features the iconic Dunedin railway station.

      Our isolated, water-bound country boasts 14,000 kilometres of unmatchable coastline. From long sandy beaches to steep rocky inclines, New Zealand’s beaches come in all forms, and almost all of them are capable of producing a surfable swell. Following on the theme of the surf-break issue, these two definitive stamps also feature popular surfing locations.

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.

2017 Native New Zealand Freshwater Fish.

          More than 40 different species of freshwater fish have been identified in New Zealand’s waterways. Around three-quarters of these secretive and largely nocturnal natives are already endangered, which is a troublingly high number compared to other countries. Some of the issues our freshwater fish face include barriers in migration, destruction of habitat and the introduction of predators such as trout.

          Many of New Zealand’s freshwater fish species have had to evolve unique attributes in order to live in our varied habitats. The lowland longjaw galaxias is so named for its distinctive upturned lower jaw, the redfin bully has taught itself to climb, the longfin eel can live for up to 100 years, the lamprey is commonly known as a “vampire parasite” and the torrentfish has a unique zebra-style camouflage.
          From deep ice-cold lakes to fast moving raging rapids, the vast range of species found in New Zealand’s waterways are celebrated with these beautifully illustrated stamps. The diversity of New Zealand’s aquatic life is clearly apparent when these stamps are viewed side by side.

2017 Southern Lights.

          Auroras (Southern Lights), are the result of electrically charged particles from solar winds reacting with gases in the earth’s atmosphere. The excess energy from these reactions creates a stunning light show that can be seen at the North or South poles. In order to view the Southern Lights you would need to be as far South as possible, which is part of the reason that New Zealand is such a prime location for viewing these colourful displays.

          The Southern Lights can range in colour from pink to green to purple, with the colours dependent on a number of factors. The type of solar wind particle, the type of gas molecule and the electrical state at the time of the collision all have an effect on the eventual colour of the aurora.

                    

          The Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve is located in the Mackenzie Basin of the South Island. The extreme lack of natural light and the multitude of clear nights make it the perfect combination for stargazing, or if the timing is right, for viewing the Southern Lights. The Mt John observatory is the University of Canterbury’s premier astronomical observatory and is a much favoured spot for catching a glimpse of the Southern Lights.
          This stunning stamp issue features six gummed stamps - each featuring a photograph of the Southern Lights, taken at the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve. Each stamp shows a different view of the Southern Lights, with the various colours and patterns of shimmering light clearly evident in these stunning photographs.

                    

2005/2017 Year of the Rooster

2017 - Year of the Rooster.

         The Year of the Rooster will begin on 28 January, 2017 and will be celebrated in New Zealand and around the world. The rooster is the tenth animal in the Chinese zodiac and those born in the Year of the Rooster are loyal, trustworthy, observant and keen to offer their opinions to those around them. Character traits associated with the Rooster include confidence, courageousness and resourcefulness.

        NZ Post issued this set of four values along with the usual Miniature Sheet and First Day Covers. There were the usual collector's items such as plate blocks, value blocks and full sheets. Also, an attractive presentation pack could be purchased as well. The highlight of the collector items was a numbered and framed gold foil miniature sheet.  

     
  The photo to the left was taken at the 2016 Chinese New Year - Lantern Festival.

Return to our Chinese New Year Collection.

Annual New Zealand Stamp Collections.

Each year New Zealand Post produces 'The New Zealand Collection' - a comprehensive album of all the stamps produced in in the past year. This premium publication features stunning pictorial images and extensive commentary on the year's stamp issues from some of New Zealand’s most well known personalities.

The advert header from the NZ Post Site.

We have decided to feature four years of these collections (2013 - 2016) on this blog since it's part of the New Zealand Stamp Scene. I know it will turn into a free advert for NZ Post but I hope that over time this post will become more of the historic page. Prices are included for interest only and these items will not be sold by this blog. For current price and availability please contact NZ Post via their website  https://stamps.nzpost.co.nz/

 

2013 Collection.                                        2014 Collection.                                           2015 Collection.

                                         
2016 Collection.                                               2017 Collection.

Antarctica Post - Page Two

        Antarctica Post has issued a new stamp each year since 2002. These stamps are designed and issued with the help of New Zealand Wine Post. Their stamps secure special delivery between the USA bases, South Pole Station or McMurdo Station to Antarctica Post Agency in Dunedin. Once the letter reaches New Zealand it is forwarded using other postal services.

         As well as providing a postal service they also have an eye for the collector market as well. They offer a service where for $10.00 they will provide a letter or postcard cancelled at the South Pole and sent to you via New Zealand. Examples of these can be seen on this page.

         There will be some small, poor quality stamps in this collection until we can find better replacements. We considered it was better to present a complete collection rather than go for a part collection of good quality stamps. Like we did with our NZ Wine Post collection, this post will be published partly finished with further work continuing after that. For updates see our 'What is New in this Blog.'

Our collection of Antarctica Post stamps has continued to grow until now the decision has been made to establish the second page.     

Go Back to Antarctica Post - Page One.  (Issues 2002 - 2009)