NEW ZEALAND

NEW ZEALAND / AOTEAROA.

Landscapes.
Mount Cook.
First stamp in a set of 9, issued on 27.03.1996.
Face value: 5 cents of New Zealand dollar.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Size: 35 x 30 mm.

Catalogs
- Michel No. 1502.
- Scott No. 1345.
- StampWorld No. 1545.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 1925.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 1440.

Mount Cook (Māori: Aoraki) is the highest mountain in New Zealand. Its height, as of 2014, is listed as 3,724 m (12,218 ft). It sits in the Southern Alps, the mountain range that runs the length of the South Island. It consists of three summits: from south to north, the Low Peak (3,593 m or 11,788 ft), the Middle Peak (3,717 m or 12,195 ft) and the High Peak. The summits lie slightly south and east of the main divide of the Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana, with the Tasman Glacier to the east and the Hooker Glacier to the southwest. The mountain is in the Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park, established in 1953 in the Canterbury Region. The park contains more than 140 peaks standing over 2,000 m (6,600 ft) and 72 named glaciers, which cover 40 percent of its 700 km² (170,000 acres). The first known ascent was on December 25, 1894, when New Zealanders Tom Fyfe, John Michael (Jack) Clarke and George Graham reached the summit via the Hooker Valley and the north ridge.