1995 Anniversaries and Events.

Three stamp issues during 1995 celebrating important events.

 

 1995 Conferences.                                                                         1995 United Nations.

1995 Commonwealth Heads.

2018 Reconnecting New Zealand.

        This is a spectular set of stamps. They have used the pictorial format to produce six large stamps showing the work and scope of this large project. The subjects of trucks, trains and diggers would appeal to thematic collectors as well. There are also some great photos on the covers and miniature sheets too with lots of good information regarding the views on each stamp in the presentation packs. Well done NZ Post!

 

         It took one year, one month, and one day to reopen State Highway 1 after the magnitude-7.8 Kaikōura Earthquake on 14 November 2016. Freight trains had returned to the railway just 10 months after tracks had been thrown into the sea. In all, 1,700 people worked more than 2 million hours to move mountains and reconnect the communities isolated by the quake.

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.

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.

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.

Dunedin Railway Station.

A collection of stamps featuring this iconic building.

         After parliament buildings and the beehive, Dunedin Railway Station must be one of the buildings most featured on stamps. This beautiful building with its attractive light and dark stonework looks nothing like a station from one side and was once one of the busiest stations from the other. It was built at a time when Dunedin was booming with wealth from gold rushes of inland Otago. Now it is quieter, the station only seeing a few tourist trains each day and the building turned to other uses. But it is still the iconic building, the tourist attraction it always was. And it still makes a great subject for a stamp too.

For stamps on other railway subjects see Trains of New Zealand.

1982 Architecture - 30c Dunedin Railway Station.

30c - Dunedin Railway Station.

1982 Architecture.

1964 Road Safety Campaign

3d - Road Safety.

 This special stamp issue was made in support of National Accident Free Day as part of a road safety campaign. The stamp depicts a map of New Zealand with a road, divided by a dotted white line, from Bluff to the North Cape, symbolic of State Highway 1. On the left of the stamp a driver's hand firmly grasps a steering wheel.

2012 - Great Voyages of New Zealand

As a small nation surrounded by water, New Zealand has relied on ships and vessels as a means of transport for as long as it's been inhabited. The 'Great Voyages of New Zealand' stamp issue features five vessels that have played a part in shaping New Zealand.

2015 75th Anniversary of Air New Zealand.

         Air New Zealand originated in 1940 as Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL), a flying boat company operating trans-Tasman flights between New Zealand and Australia. TEAL became wholly owned by the New Zealand government in 1965, whereupon it was renamed Air New Zealand. The airline mainly served international routes until 1978, when the government merged it and the domestic-orientated New Zealand National Airways Corporation (NAC) into a single airline under the Air New Zealand name.
        Air New Zealand was largely privatised in 1989, but returned to majority government ownership in 2001 after a failed tie up with Australian carrier Ansett Australia (when Ansett suffered financial issues and folded operations during that year).
        In November 2013, The Fifth National Government reduced its share in Air New Zealand from 73% to 53% as part of its controversial asset sales programme. It made $365 million from this deal.
         Air New Zealand currently operates an international long-haul fleet consisting of mainly the Boeing 777 variant family, with Boeing 767-300 and Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft supplementing them. Airbus A320 aircraft operate on short-haul international routes (i.e. to Australia and the Pacific Islands), and on domestic routes alongside Boeing 737-300 airliners. 
        Air New Zealand's regional subsidiaries, Air Nelson, Eagle Airways, and Mount Cook Airline, operate additional short-haul New Zealand domestic services using turboprop aircraft.

1963 - 1973 Railway Locomotives.

         For other stamps with a train theme see our collection Trains of New Zealand.
                    1963 Railway Century.

A two value issue to mark 100 years of railways in New Zealand. The first railway line in New Zealand ran from Christchurch to Ferrymead and was completed in 1863, the centenary of the event was commemorated by an issue of these two stamps.

The 10 Class DF (2-Co+Co-2) introduced in 1954 were New Zealand's first main-line diesel-electric locomotive. Built by English Electric of Great Britain the DFs and their half size sisters the DGs were soon superseded by the more robust USA build DA Class. Although depicted here hauling a Main Trunk express under the watchful Mount Ruapehu in the background, they spent most of their working life on less important routes such as the Bay of Plenty line. 

Trains of New Zealand.

      

   Another of my interests besides Stamps is Trains. I like any trains anywhere but since this blog is about New Zealand stamps I suppose, I should display New Zealand trains.

Over the years New Zealand has issued four sets of train stamps plus quite a few others depicting trains or train related subjects. Let's have a look at them.

1963 Crash Cover.

        Here is something a bit different.

        On 3 July 1963, a NAC Douglas DC-3 crashed into the Kaimai Ranges in New Zealand's North Island while flying in clouds and turbulence. The aircraft was flying from Whenuapai Airport, in Auckland, to Tauranga.

       The crash happened when the aircraft struck a vertical rock face after encountering a strong downdraft. The aircraft may also have commenced an early descent with the pilots unaware of the true position of the aircraft, on the wrong side of the ranges. All 23 people on board were killed. The wreckage remains on the hillside to this day, with a small memorial cairn beside it.

1970s Vintage Transport Series.

       During the mid 1970s New Zealand issued a yearly set of stamp featuring vintage transport. I think it might be better if we view these sets in one group rather than individual issues.  I have combined these issues to make and interesting series of 30 stamps depicting the development of early transport in New Zealand. Maybe one day I might return to view each issue in greater detail.

   

See the 1984 - 1986 Vintage Transport Issues.

1940 Centennial Pictorials

         As 1940 approached, New Zealand Government Officials were considering ways in which The Dominion could celebrate its first centenary. A great exhibition was planned in Wellington.

         I remember my father telling us that as a boy most of his small country school travelled by train from their little community in Northland, all the way to Wellington. They slept in the classrooms of a local school while visiting the Great Centennial Exhibition and taking in the sights of the capital before returning to Northland on another special train.  
         Word spread ahead that this special train was passing through the various town and cities on route and my mother told us that as a young girl she stood at the trackside in Avondale, Auckland, watching it go by. Little did she know that one day she would marry one of those 'country kids' hanging out the windows waving madly.
         I remember their surprise that day as they realised that they could have looked at each other, all those years before they would eventually meet and get married when my father moved to Auckland.

1920 Victory & 1946 Peace

        I have been interested in the two sets of stamps issued at the end of the first and second World Wars. The first one in 1920 is called the Victory Issue while the second one in 1946 is known as the Peace Issue. Why the difference? This post is going to compare these two issues and try to find why they are so different considering they both mark the end a major war.

1920  Victory

For more see military /ANZAC - Part One.
First, the Victory Issue which marked the end of World War I, a war which was said to have been the war to end all wars. No one would have believed that 20 years later an even bigger war would be raging.

       
             Green - ½d                                                                                              Red - 1d
Both of these stamps carry a similar theme of the British Lion representing the British Empire, with the allegorical figure of Peace.