2006 Gold Rush

        In the middle and later years of the 19th century, miners in their thousands travelled to New Zealand from all over the world, drawn by excited reports of gold discovered and dreams of riches beyond their imaginations. Their arrival and the results of their toil were to have spectacular effects on this country’s social and economic fabric – effects that can still be seen today.

       For many hopeful prospectors, their dreams of wealth were fulfilled, with fields in Thames, the West Coast and Otago yielding this precious metal in abundance. Their successes led to more arrivals, with New Zealand experiencing unprecedented population growth during the gold rush years – increasing by 75% between 1861 and 1864.

       The gold rushes now rank as one of the most powerful stimuli ever for the New Zealand economy, with the South Island, in particular, reaping the benefits of its newfound wealth.

1995 Golf Courses

        The game of golf followed the Scots to New Zealand. It all began in Dunedin when a young whisky distiller named Charles Howden called a meeting to form a golf club in 1871. The game grew slowly when a surge in its popularity in Great Britain was mirrored in the colonies.
        In 1899 a national golfing body was formed in New Zealand. And over the decades the game has boomed, growing from strength to strength. In 1995 when these stamps were issued, nearly 113,000 registered golfers enjoyed the sport, year round. Just as New Zealand is well known worldwide for its beauty, so too are its golf courses. This special issue of golf stamps depicted four of the country’s most attractive golfing venues. Each of these courses provide a showcase for the natural splendour of their region.

The four stamps of the 1995 Gulf Courses issue.

2005 Cafe Culture

A place to meet friends… an oasis for the weary… a people-watching vantage point… a romantic hideaway… even a mobile office. For almost a century, cafés have fulfilled an important role in New Zealand society, constantly evolving with the times. The decades may have passed, but the café's place in everyday life has rarely wavered - perhaps because its form and function have always changed to reflect the society of the day. The so-called 'café culture' is literally a moving feast, from the comparatively quaint tea rooms of the early 20th century to the coffee-literate, Internet-connected counterparts we know today.

The stamps, produced in the shape of a coffee cup, were supplied as a strip of five stamps, comprising one stamp of each denomination, as well as sheets of 25.

1994 25th Anniversary of The First Moon Landing

On 21 July 1969 (New Zealand Time) man first set foot on the moon. The American astronaut Neil Armstrong, the commander of Apollo 11, watched by millions of television viewers around the world, stepped off the ladder of the lunar module, Eagle, on to the moon. "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," he said.

Our school teacher brought a TV into the classroom and we watched in wonder as this historic event unfolded. First, there was the launch of the giant Saturn V that carried the tiny capsule with the first men who would walk on the moon. Daily, we followed their progress until finally, they came to the point where the lunar module separated for the trip down to the moon's surface. The first time they stepped out on to the surface came when we were supposed to be at school. So lessons were put aside as we watched those grainy black & white images of Neil Armstrong stepping out onto the lunar surface.

$1.50 - Neil Armstrong / First Man on the Moon.

2018 Wahine 50 Anniversary

          When the Wahine departed Lyttelton Harbour at 8.40pm on 9 April 1968, there were 734 passengers and crew on board. The overnight voyage to Wellington was nothing new to Captain HG Robertson: the often-turbulent Cook Strait was familiar in all its ill-behaved weather and swells. However, on this evening no-one was prepared for the raging storm that occurred when Cyclone Giselle swept down the coast, colliding with a southerly front. The result was one of the worst recorded storms in New Zealand’s maritime history.

          In the early hours of the morning on 10 April 1968, Wellington Harbour was encroaching on the near horizon. With the wind blowing at 50 knots, a common stiff breeze in Wellington terms, Captain Robertson made the decision to enter the narrow entrance to the harbour. On entering, the wind suddenly picked up and dramatically increased to a powerful 100 knots. Huge waves slammed the ship, forcing it towards Barrett Reef. With the radar system having failed, the Captain attempted to manoeuvre the ship back out to sea.
          The storm continued to wreak havoc, dragging the ship along the reef, causing further damage, and preventing rescuers from approaching it. Its ferocity also delayed the captain’s decision to abandon ship, as he believed that people would be safer on board.
          The first survivors began washing up on Seatoun foreshore, and others were plucked out of the water by boats waiting nearby. Most of those tossed into the waves were swept to Eastbourne’s rocky foreshore, where slips prevented rescuers reaching them quickly, and many suffered from being exposed to the harsh, deteriorating conditions. Many would ask how such a tragedy could occur right on the doorstep of the nation's capital. But it did and while the storm raged, many of the people in Wellington at the time went to watch the foundering of the Wahine unfold.
          News reports quickly spread across the country making this one of the most documented tragedies of our time. These stamps show the Wahine in all her glory and the sequence of how the day played out. The newspaper headings on each stamp are fictitious but acknowledge the role media played in telling the story.

2008 Weather Extremes

        New Zealand Post is committed to sustainability and currently exploring ways to minimise its impact on the environment. This stamp issue was part of that commitment – highlighting New Zealand’s own weather extremes, which are remarkably diverse for such a small nation. Each of the stamps in this issue focused on different elements of New Zealand's weather extremes.

        As the climate warms, New Zealand is expected to experience more weather extremes. They will reach into all aspects of life in this country. The first-day cover highlighted our weather extremes in one place, displaying all six stamps and their dramatic images illustrating the impact of climate change, which through warmer weather is expected to have a significant effect on our agricultural industry.

In my line of work, dairy farming, the weather plays a huge part in our business. Our milking season begins in August so it is important that we have a good spring. Too much rain and cold, the grass doesn't get away. Not enough rain and again we don't make good hay and run out of feed. Then there is flooding on the bottom flats. Windburn up on the top ridge. Cold winds during lambing. Mud, frost, rain, wind -  sounds like fun doesn't it?  

2009 Lighthouses

 
         In 2009, NZ Post commemorated the 150th anniversary of New Zealand’s first lighthouse (Pencarrow) with five distinctive stamps. Each stamp featured a technological ‘landmark’ of its own – lighthouse beams that actually glow in the dark! You can see the slightly unusual texture of the lighthouse beams in these stamp images.

          As true landmarks of New Zealand, lighthouses continue to have an important role for ships entering and leaving New Zealand’s waters, helping sailors to calculate their distances from land and travelling speeds, providing effective warnings of potential danger and signalling entrances to safe harbours. 

          Today, all lighthouses are automated – the last to be converted was The Brothers lighthouse in July 1990. And while few of those built of local hardwood have survived due to the harsh conditions on New Zealand’s coastlines, the lighthouses made of hardier materials such as stone or concrete, continue to perform, decade after decade.

2009 Auckland Harbour Bridge 50th Anniversary

        For many of us, it’s been there as long as we can remember – but when it was opened in 1959, the Auckland Harbour Bridge was one of the most significant infrastructure projects New Zealand had ever undertaken. Soaring over the waters of Waitemata Harbour, it provided a much-needed link between the North Shore and Auckland City – with long-term benefits for residents, businesses and New Zealand as a whole.
       Fifty years since its opening, Auckland Harbour Bridge is an icon of New Zealand’s landscape. The Auckland Harbour Bridge is an icon of New Zealand’s landscape. Replacing a 40-kilometre drive or a cross-harbour ferry ride, it’s been key to growth in the region – transforming North Shore’s seaside villages and rural communities into a thriving city, and opening Auckland City and points north and south to previously unimaginable opportunities for expansion and development.

A used copy of $2.00.

        The Auckland Harbour Bridge is an eight-lane box truss motorway bridge over the Waitemata Harbour, joining Saint Mary's Bay in Auckland with Northcote in North Shore City. The bridge is part of State Highway 1 and is the second-longest road bridge in New Zealand. The main span is 43 meters above high tide to allow ships free access to the deepwater wharf at the Chelsea Sugar Refinery.

1992 Navigators

        The Navigators issue recognised the voyages of Abel Tasman and Christopher Columbus, two of history's foremost explorers and navigators. The issue marked the 350th anniversary of the sighting of New Zealand by Tasman and the 500th anniversary of Columbus' sighting of the Americas. Although 150 years apart, the two landmark oceanic expeditions have much in common:

        Both explorers set out in small wooden boats, using unreliable methods of navigation in search of new lands and new trading partners. Overcrowded and unhygienic conditions, long monotonous months at sea, poor diets and harsh punishments made life a mental and physical ordeal for Tasman's and Columbus' crews alike. Most interestingly both men misconstrued their own discoveries. When Columbus first sighted the Bahamas in 1492, he thought he had reached China, while in 1642 Tasman wrongly identified the west coast of New Zealand as part of the unknown southern continent.

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.  

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.

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.

2016 Christchurch Stamp and Postcard Exhibition

The Christchurch 2016 Stamp and Postcard Exhibition was held from 18 to 20 November at the Addington Event Centre. This national exhibition featured a full range of philatelic exhibits plus postcards and other collectables - nearly 5,000 pages of material in total. The theme of the exhibition was the centenary of the founding of the Canterbury Aviation Company by Sir Henry Wigram.

In keeping with aviation theme of the exhibition, NZ Post issued two very special exhibition products - an exhibition miniature sheet and a souvenir first day cover. The miniature sheet depicts the arrival of the Fokker Trimotor VH-USU (known as the Southern Cross) at Wigram Aerodrome on 11 September 1928, after the first successful flight between Australia and New Zealand. It incorporates a replica of the 1958 stamp that was issued to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the first trans-Tasman flight. The first day cover features a scenic photo of the Avon River.

1982 Architecture

The next issue of New Zealand Architecture appeared in 1982

with a four stamp issue featuring two houses and two public buildings.

20c - Alberton, Auckland.

1995 Ross Dependency Antarctic Explorers

         After the 1994 Ross Dependency Definitives it was decided the demand for Ross Dependency stamps justified an annual issue. The first of these appeared on the 9th November 1995 and has continued until at least 2016.

        This first issue featured six famous explorers with their ships/aircraft in the background. These were interesting stamps, each with an exciting story of adventure to be told. Each explorer was selected because they had left their mark on the section of Antarctica we now know as the Ross Dependency.

        These stamps were not available for use on postage in New Zealand but the stamps and First Day Covers could be purchased from New Zealand Post via their Christchurch Branch where Ross Dependency postage was handled for dispatching to and from Scott Base in the Dependency.

        At the time of writing, I have been unable to find a good example of the First Day Cover for this issue. One will be added later if a suitable image comes available. Meantime I have included three images of the presentation pack issued for this set.

1981 Anniversaries / Family Life.

1981 Anniversaries / Commemoratives.

The 1981 Commemorative Stamp Issue consisted of two stamps commemorating 
the Centenary of Feilding and the International Year of Disabled Persons.

20c - Centenary of Feilding.

1981 marked the centenary of the Constitution of Feilding as a Borough.  The town was named after the Honourable Colonel William Henry Adelbert Feilding, 1836-1895, son of 7th Earl of Denbeigh.  Feilding is a community serving the rural area of the upper Manawatu and has a population of about 13,000.  A main feature of the borough is the stock sale yards which play an important part in the agricultural and pastoral activities of the district.

1980 Architecture

        The second Architecture issue featured buildings of a slightly more modern design. They include two houses, a courthouse and a grand Government building. This has been said to have been the second largest wooden structure in the world.

14c - Ewelme Cottage, Parnell.

The cottage was built in 1863-64 for the Rev Vicesimus Lush the first vicar of Howick and his family.  The kauri cottage was eventually purchased by the Auckland City Council and leased to the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.  Restored to its former glory and richly endowed by many of the Lush family possessions, the cottage is open to the public.

1979 Architecture

        This is the first of three New Zealand Architecture issues, the others appearing in 1980 and 1982. New Zealand Architecture is an interesting subject that has appeared on many stamps. At first most of the buildings were copies from styles found in England but as these styles were adapted for New Zealand conditions, new and distinctly New Zealand styles began to emerge.        

        

         Buildings from the 1800s were the subject of the first issue on early New Zealand architecture. Notice the purpose of each of these buildings, one a private house, two mission buildings and one Government building.

10c - Riverlands Cottage, Blenheim.

Built about 1865 for Charles Redwood, son of a pioneering family.  Redwood arrived in New Zealand in 1842 and purchased the land in 1865.  The present cob cottage could date earlier than this since "squatting" was still a common practice in the 1860s.  Lack of suitable timber in Wairau forced the construction of the cob style house.  The cob walls were constructed from a mud and tussock mixture while the roof was made from wooden shingles.   Administered by the Marlborough Historical Society, interest in the restoration of the cottage from its badly dilapidated state began in 1959.  It was opened to the public in 1965.

1979 Statesmen of the 19th Century.

Notable 19th Century New Zealand Statesmen were depicted on this se-tenant strip of three stamps. It could be said that these three men were "fathers of the nation" of New Zealand. From Sir George Grey who guided the country through the early Maori wars; to Sir Julius Vogel with his great infrastructure projects; to Richard John Seddon with his social reforms; these three men gave much to New Zealand. 

2015 Ross Dependency.

Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914–17), also known as the Endurance Expedition, is considered the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Conceived by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition was an attempt to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent. After the conquest of the South Pole by Roald Amundsen in 1911, this crossing from sea to sea remained, in Shackleton's words, the "one great main object of Antarctic journeyings". The expedition failed to accomplish this objective, but became recognised instead as an epic feat of endurance.

NZ Post looks back about one hundred years to this heroic expedition  made up of two teams on opposite sides of the continent — one's tale heralded as the ‘greatest survival story ever told’, the other's as ‘the greatest survival story never told’. These are six stamps of scenes selected to tell these two stories along with the usual special collectors items.