2005 The Chronicles of Narnia I

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

        This movie is based on the second book of The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis. I don't know why they didn't start with the first book telling of how Narnia was created by Aslan the Lion. Anyway the movie vividly brings to life this popular children's story using stunning graphics and visual effects.
        The story opens as World War II brings the carnage and terror of the Blitz to London. The four Pevensie children - Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy - are sent away to stay with Professor Kirke in his ancient mansion. It is a strange house fill of many apparently unused rooms. It one stand this wardrobe by itself.





                       Lucy and the Wardrobe - 45c

         In a game of hide-and-seek Lucy decides to duck into what looks like an old wardrobe, only it turns out to be a doorway to the strange and mysterious world of Narnia. She meets the faun Mr. Tumnus, who takes her to his house and tells her more about this extraordinary yet dangerous place ruled by the cruel White Witch. Narnia is under her spell and locked in an endless winter.

2012 75 Years of the RNZAF

        In 2012 the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) celebrated 75 years since it was formed in 1937. NZ Post used its annual military issue to mark this important milestone with a set of 15 stamps. They were issued as a miniature sheet with each stamp have a postal value of 60c, giving the whole sheet a face value of $9.00.
        Below the sheet, I give further details about the subjects depicted on each stamp.

International Yachting.

       With the America's Cup races on at the moment I thought it might be an idea to go back and find if we can trace how New Zealand came to be competing with the USA for the cup. This blog is the story of New Zealand International Yacht Racing.


       New Zealand has had a long history of yacht racing. These two Health Stamps below show the sport of yachting and yacht racing, popular with both adults and children. Many people started as children in yachting classes such as the P-Class, then as they grew older progressed on to larger classes until they found themselves in what we call the blue water classes. These are the ocean going yachts and international competitions. 
       This has led to New Zealand being known all over the world for both the quality of its yachtsmen and for the quality of its boats. So wherever you find a international yacht race you are most likely to find a New Zealander in the middle of it. 

 Our Yachting Heritage.     

 

1946 - The Soldier (Yachts in the Background)

1951 - Yachting The popular Takapuna Class, training ground for many young yachtsmen.

1949 - 1952 Cancelled Royal Visits.

1953 Royal Visit.

The 2001 Royal Visits Issue.

2013 Upper Hutt National Stamp Show

         The Upper Hutt Stamp Club is celebrating its Golden Jubilee in 2013 with a national stamp show and to commemorate New Zealand Post is issuing an exhibition miniature sheet and exhibition souvenir cover. The issue date is the 13th September to mark the opening of the exhibition. 
         As much as I dislike miniature sheets designed for specific exhibitions I do realise NZ Post needs the opportunity for marketing and sales of their philatelic products. In the light of this, I will therefore continue feature these special issues on my blog.

         The miniature sheet shows a view of Upper Hutt looking across the Hutt River. The two stamps featured on the sheet came from 2013 New Zealand Native Ferns, issued on the 7th February. In the first design ($2.40) the Umbrella Fern is shown with its distinctive fronds like the ribs of an umbrella. The second design ($2.90) shows the Silver Fern with fronds of beautiful green as shown which have bright silver on their under sides. Both stamps show the juvenile frond in the form of that spiral pattern known in New Zealand as the koru. 

        The special cover above, shows more of the photo shown on the miniature. Notice the special post mark with a native wood pigeon designed for this issue. Both the miniature sheet and the cover show the logo designed by the Upper Hutt Stamp Club for their exhibition.

        For those who are interested, Upper Hutt 2013 will be held from 13 to 15 September at the Expressions Arts and Entertainment Centre, 836 Fergusson Drive, Upper Hutt. Located 30 kilometres north-east of Wellington city, Upper Hutt boasts 70 per cent of the region’s parks and reserves, and this is the first time the city has hosted a national stamp show.

2011 The Victoria Cross

         
The Victoria Cross is a bronze cross 41 mm high and 36 mm wide, bearing the Crown of Saint Edward surmounted by a lion. The cross was originally intended to be the Maltese Cross with the inscription "For the Brave" but this was changed to "For Valour" by Queen Victoria who thought the former wording might imply not all the men in battle were brave.
          The ribbon, described as crimson or wine red, is 38mm wide and passes through the bar from which the medal hangs. The bar in engraved with ornamental laurel leaves.
          On the reverse the bar is engraved with the recipient's name, rank, number and unit. On the reverse of the cross is a circular panel on which the date of the act  for which it was awarded is engraved in the centre. See the example of the VC awarded to Edward Holland on the right.

2013 Health Issue.

Forward to 2014 Health Issue.

  
        Thousands of New Zealand children grow up on farms and in the country, and the 2013 Children's Health stamp issue celebrates the unique ways of life of these children and their pets. I can relate to this since I grew up on a small farm, actually the one I own today. You will find a picture of us kids with our pets at the bottom of this post. We also had the usual dogs, cats, lambs, pigs, even gecko lizard which would be illegal today. Ringo, my pet gecko actually turned out to be a female when she had babies. LOL. 
          On 18 April 2013, Te Puna Whaiora Children’s Health Camps launched its new name, Stand Children’s Services, Tu Maia Whanau. Stand Children’s Services aims to nurture the dreams and aspirations of our nation’s children, allowing them to find their turangawaewae, their 'place to stand’

For our full Health Stamp Collection use the links in the page bar above.
To see this issue in our collect 2013 Health.



               

70c +10c - Lamb.                              $1.40 + 10c - Piglet.

2013 Coastal Lighthouses.

         Yesterday, 4th September, NZ Post issued this set of five stamps showing coastal scenes from around New Zealand. They called this issue New Zealand Coastlines but I like the title I gave this post above is better since each stamp shows a New Zealand lighthouse.
        New Zealand consists of two major islands and numinous smaller ones. The country has a long winding coastline with many areas dangerous for shipping. Most of these places are protected by lights which warn of the dangers. Once these lights were manned by keepers who lived with their families in this isolated locations but now most lights around New Zealand are automatic, just requiring servicing on a regular basis. 
         Most of these lighthouses have appeared at least once in other stamps issued by New Zealand so I have decided that at some point I will create a collection of all the stamps featuring lighthouses.

70c - Castlepoint.

Castlepoint on Wairarapa coast, named by Captain Cook who thought it resembled a castle. This is the only one of these lighthouse that I have actually visited.

2013 Prince George of Cambridge

           On the 11th September, 2013, New Zealand Post is going to issue a set of four stamps and a special coin to mark the birth of the royal baby, His Royal Highness - Prince George of Cambridge. Born on 22 July, 2013, to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince George is third in line to the throne and will one day become ‘King of New Zealand.’

           When I was thinking about how I could present this set I decided it might be nice to also show those who were in the line of the throne before him. So I have included the baby photos of both Prince William and Prince Charles. At the bottom is the 1940 British Sovereigns stamp which takes the line all the way back to Queen Victoria. But first lets see the stamps and coin of Prince George.
          You may wish to visit my post 2014 Royal Visit to New Zealand.

2005 King Kong

       In 2005 Peter Jackson released his version of the classic story King Kong. Jackson said he had always been inspired by the King Kong movies and always wanted to try do it himself. After making the three Lord of the Rings movies he decided to build on this success and tackle King Kong using many new visual effects he had developed.

        Principal photography started on September 6, 2004 at Camperdown Studios in Miramar, New Zealand with most of the movie being shot in locations and studios around Wellington.  Directed, co-written and produced by Peter Jackson, the film stars Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow, Jack Black as Carl Denham, Adrien Brody as Jack Driscoll and, through motion capture, Andy Serkis as the title character. Serkis also played Lumpy, the galley chef on the SS Venture.

        The film's budget climbed from an initial US$150 million to a record-breaking $207 million. The film was released on December 14, 2005, and made an opening of $50.1 million. While the film performed lower than expectations, King Kong made domestic and worldwide grosses that eventually added up to $550 million, becoming the fourth-highest grossing film in Universal Pictures history. It also generated $100 million in DVD sales upon its home video release.

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.

2013 Classic Travel Poster

     Tomorrow (7th August) New Zealand will issue set of 20 stamps depicting Classic Travel Posters. Three examples of these can be seen below.

  

          The twenty stamps, all with the value of 70c, will be sold from sheets of 20 as can be seen in the view below of the wall poster which will be sold as well. As you can see they appear to be interesting designs but I have been unable to find out much about them. 

Rugby on New Zealand Stamps

       

          As the title above says, this post is about the history of New Zealand Rugby as told by the stamps of New Zealand.

1967 Health - New Zealand Rugby.
         

          We begin our search for New Zealand Rugby Stamps with the Health Issue of 1967. When New Zealand was changing to decimal currency and so it was decided to start a new sporting theme in the Health  Stamp Series. As the New Zealand Rugby Union was celebrating their 75th Anniversary the first stamps of this new theme depicted rugby. Each design featured a boy playing rugby football with a shadow figure of an 'All Black' player in the background.

                               

1967 Rugby - 2 1/2c + 1c                           1967 Rugby - 3c + 1c

1999 / 2011 The Year of the Rabbit.

       1999 and 2011 celebrated The New Year under the Chinese lunar sign The Year of the Rabbit. In both years New Zealand issued stamps to mark this event. Following on with my series of Chinese New Year issues I will be looking at both these issues in this post. When we reach the Year of the Rabbit for a third time I hope to include that issue here too.
      See my complete collection of Chinese New Year Issues.

2011  The Year of the Rabbit.

       The third year of NZ Post's second cycle of Chinese New Year signs was the Year of the Rabbit. Again modern stylised stamps were used followed the four stamp pattern set in 2010. The first stamp (60c) shows the Chinese character which reflects the awareness and alertness of the rabbit. The second value ($1.20) shows the paper cut design, this time of a rabbit.



                                    

60c - Year of the Rabbit.                                     $1.20 - Rabbit Paper-cut. 

2013 ANZAC

New Zealanders Serving Abroad.

         For a number of years New Zealand has been issuing stamps to mark the annual ANZAC Day events where as a country we remember those brave men and women who have lost their lives serving in the NZ Military overseas. There are many services that take place that day including one in the small community in which I live. These services often are at dawn, known as a dawn service or dawn parade, or later in the morning at 10am. In the centre of Auckland they hold a large dawn service at the Auckland Memorial Museum which attracts thousands of people. What is surprising is that over the years as the old soldier have past on, their ranks declining, the numbers of younger people attending these services has steadily grown.   
         It is well known that New Zealand played a role in World War I and World War II but what is lesser know is the long list of other places where New Zealand men and women have served. New Zealand is proud of its commitment to peacekeeping and assisting other nations in trouble and our military plays an important role in this.
         2013 marks the 60 anniversary of the Korean War. To mark this event the 2013 ANZAC issue features six of the many places New Zealand Defence Forces have been deployed to.

2005 - 150 Years of New Zealand Stamps

        In 2005 New Zealand celebrated 150 years since it first began issuing stamps for postage. That first stamp issue was the famous Full Faced Queens which I have featured in other posts in this blog. Since then there have been many fine stamps issued and it would have been very hard to decide which should be included in a special issue to celebrate 150 years.
       In the end, fifteen stamps were chosen and were then featured in the designs of a series of modern stamps issued in three sets of five on; 2nd March 2005, 6th April 2005 and 1st June 2005. It is an impressive series of fine looking stamps.

     Before we get to this series I want to look at two earlier issues to mark the first issue of New Zealand Stamps in 1955 and 1980.

2013 Margaret Mahy

          I must admit, not being a great reader of children's books, I did not know much about Margaret Mahy. As I was not particularly attracted to the stamps either so I decided to leave this issue out of this blog until recently as I started working on the ANZAC issue then I had a closer look at this one too. I saw the awards Margaret Mahy had received and I realised that she was an important author in her field. I have therefore decided to include this issue in my blog.

          Margaret Mahy (1936 – 2012) is the only author ever to have been appointed an Ordinary Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (1993), and she won many of the world’s major prizes for children’s writers. In 2006 she won the highest international award for children’s literature – the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award, and is the only New Zealander to have done so. In New Zealand she was awarded the Esther Glen Medal and the New Zealand Post Book of the Year Award multiple times.
                                                                    (New Zealand Post.)

         Each stamp represents one of the five more popular of her books.

70c - A Lion in the Meadow.

1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part Three

Definitives Tour.  

Forward to 1973 Newspaper Stamp.

Links:- Full-Faced Queens.
          1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part One.
                    A basic introduction to the Full Faced Queens issues. 
          1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part Two.
                    Looking at factors effecting the condition and value of Classic Stamps. 
          1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part Three.
                    A collection of covers from before and using Full Faced Queen stamps. 
          1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part Four.
                    Modern use of the Full Faced Queen design.

   

       In the third part of the Full-Faced Queens we continue our look at New Zealand's first issue of postage stamps by looking at some of the covers used during this period.

       Before New Zealand issued pre-paid postage stamps letters were hand stamped to show payment had been made for postage. These hand strikes would show words such as "Paid At Auckland" or "Paid At Nelson" and often how much had been paid would be written in pencil of crayon. 

        In many cases, when we study covers from this period we find these hand strike post marks are almost impossible to read. This is because either the original strike was poorly executed or the mark has faded over time. 

        In these post we are going to look at a few pre-postage covers and then we will look at some covers from the Full-Faced Queen period. The quality of many of these covers were not good to start with and the process of up-loading them has made them worse but I still believe you will get some idea of what these early covers were like.

2007 Kiwi Lingo

          This was another one of those fun issues which NZ Post has created over recent years. In this case it is looking at some of the 'kiwi' slang we use in our everyday speech here in New Zealand. Over the years we have developed our own unique way of saying things which can be confusing for people from other countries at first. This sheet includes 20 of the most well known although there are many others which could have been included.
        The twenty stamps each carry the same value of 50c and can be ripped from the sheet if required although I would expect most collectors would rather keep them together in the one attractive sheet. Each stamp includes the slang saying on the left-hand side with a related kiwi icon below. On the right-hand side the stamp appears to be left blank but this is actually an area of thermo-chromic ink which becomes transparent when heat is applied, like the warmth of a finger, then the literal meanings are revealed. These are impossible to show in a photo so I have included them under each stamp below the sheet.  

King George VI

Definitive Tour.
Back to 1935 Pictorials.          Forward to Elizabeth II Definitives.

King George VI Coronation.

     King George VI was the second son of King George V and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne.
          In 1936 following the abdication from the throne of his elder brother (King Edward VIII), the Duke of York became King George VI.  The coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth took place at Westminster Abbey the following year. To mark this event New Zealand issued this set of three values.

   

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.    

1996 Centenary of New Zealand Cinema

          The first public screening of motion pictures in New Zealand took place at the Opera House, Auckland on 13 October 1896. This issue was created to mark that event. What is of interest to me is the subject on the stamps. I have already completed posts on other films made in New Zealand and over the next few months I plan to do more so I decided to feature this set of four stamps depicting early New Zealand films.

Hinemoa - 40c 

        "The first big dramatic work filmed and acted in the land of the Moa," was Hinemoa (1914), New Zealand's first feature.
        On a budget of £50, George Tarr directed Hinemoa over eight hectic days in Rotorua. Hera Tawhai and her husband Rua starred along with the Rev. Bennett's Maori Choir Party. With the film almost complete but the budget gone, George Tarr headed to Auckland to show it to his investors and distributor Mr Hayward. They loved it. The film was completed and Hinemoa premiered in the first week of World War 1 and did big business. Sadly there are no remaining prints of the movie, but this promotional image has survived.   
  

          The Movie is based on the famous Maori love story where Hinemoa a beautiful girl of high-born status fell in love with a man of low-born status of another tribe. Her family were strongly against the relation and prevented her from seeing him.  
          Each night she would sit by the shore and listen to the music of his flute as he played to her across the water. One day she decided she must be with him so casting her cloak aside, naked she entered the cold dark water in the night and swum to him. He found her resting, recovering from the cold in one of the warm pools on the Island.         
          There are various versions of this story from tribes around the country but the movie appears to have been based on the version from Rotorua where Hinemoa swum from the shore to the island in the middle of the lake.    

          The Legend of Hinemoa. - Rotorua's famous romance story of forbidden love.

Queen Elizabeth - A Younge Queen.

 Definitive Tour.
Back to George VI Definitives.                                              Forward to 1960 Pictorials.

Queen Elizabeth II

      

         After researching for the 60th Anniversary Issue post in this blog I have become more interested in stamps featuring Queen Elizabeth II. I have decided to do a few more posts looking at her life in greater detail through the stamps of New Zealand. This post covers her early life and photos on stamps, her coronation, then the first 1953 - 1955 definitive issues. For extra interest, I've included a few Postal History items as well.



1957 - 1967 Ross Dependency Pictorials

Establishing Scott Base.

        Scott Base was originally constructed as a temporary base in support of the UK inspired and privately managed Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (TAE). The New Zealand government provided support for the TAE and also for other International  Geophysical Year (IGY) projects during 1957.

2008 The A to Z of New Zealand.

        After looking at Full Faced Queens (last post) what about a bit of a fun issue, a feel good set if you like. It is an A to Z of New Zealand culture, history, heritage and downright kiwiana. Each letter of the alphabet is used to present a different subject of New Zealand.
        Personally I was not too impressed with many of these designs but what captured my interest was the idea of doing a issue of 26 stamps on Kiwiana like this. First I show the set as issued in a single sheet then below that, each stamp will be depicted along with a short description of the its subject.
        There are some other sets like this so I might do a post of some of them too.