NEW ZEALAND

NEW ZEALAND / AOTEAROA.

Centennial of the National Parks Movement.
Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park.
Second stamp in a set of 4, issued on 17.06.1987.
Face value: 80 cents of New Zealand dollar.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Size: 30 x 35 mm.

Catalogs
- Michel No. 997.
- Scott No. 877.
- StampWorld No. 1017.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 1429.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 961.

Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park is in the South Island of New Zealand, near the town of Twizel. The area was gazetted as a national park in October 1953 and consists of reserves that were established as early as 1887 to protect the area's significant vegetation and landscape. The park stretches for about 60 km (37 mi) along the southwest-northeast direction of the Southern Alps, covering 722 km² (279 sq mi) on the southeastern side of the main spine of the Alps. Glaciers cover 40% of the park area, notably the Tasman Glacier. It is also in the park area the New Zealand's highest mountain, the Aoraki / Mount Cook, at 3,724 m (12,218 ft). On the stamp there is also a drawing of a buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosus), a characteristic flower of the area.

The National Parks Movement began in 1887 with an initiative of the paramount chief of the Ngāti Tūwharetoa tribe, Horonuku Te Heuheu, which made an agreement wirh the British Crown that the central North Island volcanoes would become a national park, because different tribes were disputing ownership of the peaks of Ruapehu, Ngāuruhoe and Tongariro, and there was a danger that they would be divided and sold.