NEW ZEALAND

NEW ZEALAND / AOTEAROA.

Definitive stamps.
Tongariro National Park.
Ninth stamp in a set of 12, issued on 01.09.1960.
Face value: 3 New Zealand shilling.
Printing: Photogravure.
Size: 41 x 25 mm.

Catalogues
- Michel No. 409.
- Scott No. 349.
- StampWorld No. 425.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 798.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 398.

Tongariro National Park, established in October 1887, is the oldest national park in New Zealand. It covers 795.96 km² (307.32 sq mi) and contains a considerable part of the North Island Volcanic Plateau, with three active volcanoes: Mount Ruapehu, 2,797 m (9,177 ft), Mount Ngāuruhoe, 2,291 m (7,516 ft), which is the one seen on the stamp, and Mount Tongariro, 1,978 m (6,490 ft). Ngāuruhoe volcano erupted 45 times in the 20th century, most recently in 1977. Water has filled some of craters and has formed, among others, the Blue and the Emerald Lakes. The park has been acknowledged by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site of mixed cultural and natural values.