COVER N. 261 - NEW ZEALAND

Postmark: Carried by NZ Post - 4(?).05.2023

Posted on the 4th(?) May; Received on the 12th June 2023

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It has been a while since I got a cover from elsewhere in my mailbox, but today, my friend Mr. Postman finally delivered something more interesting than the water bill (which I haven't managed yet to receive in electronic format), or a complimentary note from the Fiscal authorities, inviting me to contribute to the cause.... 

I also suspect that mail delivery is getting a bit retarded... we've had some holidays around here, and these might have impacted...

The cover I got today was sent by a fellow collector whom I contacted since I knew he would be interested in a commemorative postmark issued by our postal service. Well, the postmark was issued on the 30th may and I still haven't received my cover, so his, which will be sent to quite a distant destination, will take a good handful of days to reach him, I'm sure...

Stamps. left to right:

- Elizabeth II, the most famous monarch of them all, but for the homonymous butterfly, and in her lifetime, the most proliferous Head of State, due to that very British imperial political construction, the Realms of the Commonwealth.

Also during her lifetime, and even if we do not consider the mandatory effigy in all British stamps, Her Majesty the Queen was profusely portrayed in many stamps celebrating such occasions as her birthday, the anniversary of her marriage, her coronation, the several anniversaries associated with it, and so on  and so forth.

Elizabeth II was a monarch that somehow was almost taken for granted... perpetual... everlasting, no matter what crisis shook the foundations of the Monarchy she led (and there were quite a few....) but time is merciless, and  just as it brings swallows and spring, there is no escaping winter, and albeit somewhat unexpectedly, Queen Elizabeth II passed away in 2022, at the rather respectful age of 96.

In 2021, she commemorated her 95th birthday and the fact was once again marked by several commemorative stamp issues, by several Postal Administrations, New Zealand Post being one of them. 

NZ Post issued on 07APR2021 a souvenir sheet comprising four stamps (1.40; 2.70; 3.50; 4.00 NZD), illustrated with photos of the Monarch in various phases of her lifetime, the 1.40 stamp on the cover showing a rather young Elizabeth, with a frank youthful smile on her face.

- Avatar was a blockbuster. and I haven't seen it. Directed by James Cameron of Titanic fame, it cost in excess of 300 million USD to produce but on the first weekend of exhibition it boxed in 232 million USD ... 

I am not particularly keen on movie stamps even if I understand their sellability. This fact notwithstanding I concede that it is rather more justifiable to have New Zealand, where  many of the scenes of the film were shot, issue stamps related to it, than any other country. (To mind comes last year's Portuguese issue of Lord of the Rings stamps, which to me makes as much sense as ...- please fill in the blanks with your preferred absurdity).

On 01MAR2023, New Zealand Post issued a set of 6 stamps (2 x 1.70; 3; 3.80 ; 4.30; 4.50 NZD) also issued in six individual souvenir sheets, themed on Avatar, the movie. 

One of the lesser value stamps can be seen on my cover.

- And the third stamp on the cover brings us full circle to the British monarchy once again, since it celebrates the coronation of Elizabeth's elder child as King Charles III.

On 03MAY2023, three days before the date of his coronation, NZ Post issued a four stamp set, also issued in souvenir sheet format, (1.70; 3,00, 3.80, 4.30 NZD), featuring several images of King Charles.  This set would be complemented by a souvenir sheet issued on 08MAY2023, celebrating the coronation, comprising six stamps with images of the ceremony. Given that the ceremony had taken place just two days before, they must have run the rotary printer to red hot status.... 

The postmark is rather smudged, and I can see no indication of place of posting in it.

COVER N. 232 - NEW ZEALAND

Postmark: Whanganui NZ 13.03.2023 

Posted on the 13th March; Received on the 5th April 2023
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Half the globe at the very least! That's what the very clean and dandy cover I got from the antipodes of my own country had to travel to finally come to rest inside my mailbox.

Oh, how I would love to be on the return trip, myself...

New Zealand,.. The first time I ever saw a rugby match on TV, many, many years ago, I was absolutely mesmerised by the strange ritual that those guys wearing black jerseys and shorts  executed before kick-off (well, in those days, you really couldn't tell, because TV, at least here, only showed black, white and a nice range of greys in between...).

So much so, that I decided I would play rugby myself....a decision that was as fast abandoned as it was taken, when I realised that a pair of rugby shoes was way outside my mother's financial envelope....

So I turned to volleyball instead, but all through my volleyball career, which lasted  until I got out of high school to go to university, I would also have to deal with material frustration, since  I never laid my feet inside the much coveted  Onitsuka Tiger sneakers  all my colleagues had...

Come to think of it, the Tiger shoes were my second  great material disappointment.

The first had been an Action Man action figure that I also absolutely craved for when I was 6 or so, but never got, in spite of many conversations and written letters to the guy with the long white beard, when the time no nag him came... 

Some years ago, on Christmas Eve, when presents were passed around, I got a very finely wrapped box from both my daughters. Suspecting a pair of  room  shoes, due to the format of the box, something that I was indeed in need of at the time, I started to carefully unwrap the present, as I usually do. All of a sudden, a logo emerged from the wrapping that made me tear the paper as fast as I could:  Ta-dam! Lo and behold... an Action Man action figure! I couldn't be happier  and  the immense smile on the faces of Barbara and Marta was the perfect Christmas gift a father could ask for. Bloody brats! They always knew how to sugar-coat me  😀

As usual I digress, but that's just the way  words and memoirs intermingle, at least for me, sparked by the simple beauty of an envelope, dressed with carefully laid on stamps and addressed in a fine handwriting....

Thank you so much Wendy! 

Kupe, I read, was a Polynesian sailor and explorer, and the first human to set foot in New Zealand, during a  Polynesian diaspora the reasons for which are not yet fully ascertained by historians, Inter-tribal conflicts. need to find places to live due to volcanic eruptions in their places of origin, sheer exploration and expansion, all these are plausible reasons to justify Kupe's Journey,  although legend has it that the real reason was to follow and kill a giant octopus that was killing all the fish in his Hawaiki homeland. 

- On 05JUN2019, NZ Post issued a sheetlet with eight 1.30 NZ Dollar stamps celebrating the legend of Kupe the great Navigator.

Two of these stamps were used on the cover, and these depict Matawhaorua, Kupe's waka (a traditional Polynesian boat type) and Kupe's wife, Hine-te-Aparangi, who his credited with having first sighted Aotearoa,  the Mahori name for the land we came to know as New Zealand. "He aotearoa - a long white cloud!" she exclaimed, upon noticing a white cloud on the horizon, what would indicate that in all due probability, there would be land underneath it.

- On 24JUL1991, NZ Post issued a souvenir sheet with a pair of two stamps featuring images of Hector's Dolphins (Cephalorhynchus hectori). Further to the 80 and 45 Cent denominations, the stamps also included  a 5 cent  charity tax, the proceeds of which were transmitted to the  Children's Health Camps movement. 

The Health stamp tradition is also present in the last stamp on the cover.

- On 24JUN1998 NZ Post issued a souvenir sheet dedicated to the theme of  water safety for children, featuring 2 pairs of the 40 + 5 cent, which can be seen on the cover, and  of its 80 + 5 cent companion, which bore the image of a baby leaning to swim under supervision of an adult.

The neat postmark informs us that the letter was mailed from  Whanganui, a city with 42.6 thousand inhabitants on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. 

POSTCARD N.100 - NEW ZEALAND

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 27th November, received on the 30th December 2022

Postcard image: Milford Sound, Fiordland - Late afternoon at Milford Sound looking towards Mitre Peak.
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How fitting that Postcard 100 should be  be coming from the Antipodes. Furthermore, it is one of the most beautiful postcards I got since I initiated my blog, one that is full of that "I want to go there"  atmosphere.... Thank you so much Belinda! your card is as great as the cover (#193) within which it travelled the  19 690 km that separate us.

I first heard of Milford Sound when I watched a documentary on TV, quite a number of years ago, about the Milford track.  The 3 day 53.5 km walk has, since then, been kept on my memory as one of the most beautiful tracks on the globe, and one that I would love to waste the sole of my hiking boots in, something that I'm pretty sure will never happen, for a good number of reasons...

I am not even sure that I will ever set foot in New Zealand, although I would absolutely love it, for it has to be one of the msot geographically diverse countries of the world, with an immense scenic beauty. Still one never knows what the future is holding in store, and hope is the last thing to die, so who knows...

Meanwhile I'l keep looking every once in a while at this beautiful postcard if only to remind me that there is a place, right opposite to the one I live in, that has this most amazing fiord and a three day walk that ends right in the middle of it... 

Belinda added a stamp to the postcard, even though she mailed it inside an envelope, just for the sake of it, and I'm glad that she did, because the little definitive stamps with scenic views of the country are great.

This 10 cent stamp is part of the original issue of this series, comprising 10 stamps, issued on 09MAY2007.

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COVER N.193 - NEW ZEALAND

Postmark: Illegible

Posted on the 26th November; Received on the 30th December 2022
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Just as the year was drawing to its final day a very beautiful and Season oriented cover dropped into my letterbox from literally the other side of the earth. Thank you so much, Belinda, for this great cover, with beautiful stamps and also for the outstanding postcard (#100) from an outstanding place, that came inside.

I have already stated here that I love a good handwriting, especially because mine is quite the opposite. Belinda not only addressed the letter with two very fine types of handwriting but she also embellished the envelope with a lot of rubber stamps and tapes and even a sticker of a little uniformed guy, as befits the Season. All in all, Very nice!

Sadly the postmark was applied mechanically and almost didn't touch the stamps. There are faint blue traces of it on  a couple of the stamps but for the most part the stamps are unmarked.

Stamps. left to right:

- Meri Kirihimete, Maori for Merry Christmas, reads the legend in this very beautiful 1,70 NZD stamp, part of a set of 5 (1,70; 3; 3.80; 4.30; 4.50 NZD) issued in souvenir sheet form issue by New Zealand Post on 05OCT2022 as their annual Christmas issue.

I take it that the main motif in the centre is a stylised snowflake, but I have to confess that I was a bit puzzled by the use of what looks to me like chilli peppers framing the flake, so I went and googled it and lo and behold... it seems that Chilli peppers are traditional Christmas ornaments in several places.... that I didn't know, but I can understand that their colours, green and red, really do fit the mood of these festive days... 

- on 02FEN2022, New Zeland Post issued a souvenir sheet comprising 4 stamps (1,50; 2,80; 3.60; 4.10) dedicated to "Historic Ships".

The stamps replicate absolutely stunning paintings by New Zealand artist Sean Garwood, who specialises in Still life and Marine Art and I do recommend a visit to the artist's website, to get to know his masterly works.

The oil on canvas painting that is replicated on the stamp on my cover is also featured on the site's gallery (and so are the other three), it being called "Early Golden Years, Waka and sailing ships, Golden Bay 1843", although the legend included in the stamp reads "Early trading between Mähori and Päkheä at Tata Beach, 1843", Päkheä being the Mähori term for European Settler.

A set of six definitive stamps with scenic views of New Zealand with was issued on 18MAY2016, as the 6th issue of the series. The 40 cent stamp featuring the Church of the Good Shepherd, in Lake Tekapo, on my cover is part of this issue.

The first issue of this series, comprising 10 stamps,  began to circulate on 09MAY2007. The 20 Cent stamp on the cover with an image of the Rainbow Falls in Northland is part of this set.

COVER N.139 - NEW ZELAND.

Postmark: Whanganui 16.05.22 NZ
Posted on the 16th May; received on the 13th July 2022
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If I were to drill a hole through the crust of the globe and follow right through to the other side, I'd be popping out at where this very beautiful cover came from: the antipodean New Zealand. Thank you so much Peter, not only for the nice cover, but also for the opportunity of adding such an interesting entry into my philatelic atlas.

I would love to visit New Zealand. It is a place which I associate with extreme scenic beauty and on top of it, it is, for the moment, led by a human being that has given the world a lesson on how to handle the aftermath of a hate  episode. If New Zealand is antipodean to me, Jacinda Ardern is antipodean to many politicians we know. My utmost respect to you Ms. Ardern.

Stamps left to right:

According to Wikipedia, 1.3% of the Population of New Zealand follows the Islam religion. Acknowledging this fact New Zealand Post has issued on 06APR2022 a beautiful commemorative issue comprising  four 1,5 NZ Dollar stamp (also issued in minisheet format) dedicated to Eid Mubarak. As far as I managed to grasp, Eid Mubarak are greetings that are expressed by the faithful during the Ramadan feast days. According to New Zealand Post website "These stamps feature "Eid Mubarak" (Eid Blessings) in Arabic calligraphy over the silhouette of a mosque, as well as the wording  “1443 AH” (the Islamic year) and "Eid Mubarak", followed by “New Zealand”.

Souvenir sheet containing six 45 Cent stamps issued on 16AUG1994, on the occasion of World Stamp Exhibition PHILAKOREA 1994

The stamps on this minisheet were also issued on the same date as a ten stamp double row five stamp se-tenant strip, dedicated to wild animals. Further to the tiger, panda, elephant, polar bear, giraffe and lion on the minisheet, the strip included stamps with images of an hippopotamus, spider monkey, rhino and zebra.