Night Lights

Single 40c 'Auckland' gummed stamp.

Spreading over a narrow isthmus in the north of the North Island, Auckland is New Zealand's largest city and its most important industrial and commercial centre. The heart of the city spills down to the edge of the Waitemata Harbour, a key element in the city's make-up. The harbour was made for yachting, a huge sport in Auckland that lends its name to the slogan by which Auckland is known - 'City of Sails'. Auckland's downtown centre has the country's greatest number of tall office blocks and this stamp shows them in their night splendour, rising behind the central city waterfront area.

Single 80c 'Wellington' gummed stamp.

The nation's capital, located at the southern tip of the North Island is famed for a windy climate and a spectacular setting. The city's downtown area is clustered on a narrow strip of land, much of it reclaimed from the magnificent bowl-shaped harbour. Houses crowd the steep hills circling the city. Wellington is even more spectacular at night, a panoramic blaze of concentrated light. The scene on this stamp is familiar to all Wellingtonians, being taken from Mount Victoria and looks down on the city and its harbour.

Single $1.00 'Christchurch' gummed stamp.

The contrast between Wellington and Christchurch is dramatic. Christchurch lies on the Canterbury Plains on the mid-east coast of the South Island, a little inland from its port of Lyttelton. Most of the 'Garden City' is flat and it is recognised as 'the most English' of New Zealand cities, a town of parks and gardens. The city centre is dominated by the Anglican cathedral and its soaring 65-metre spire. The church and the abutting square form a vital heart. The cathedral, floodlit and framed by leafless winter trees is shown in this night scene.

Single $1.20 'Dunedin' gummed stamp.

Gracious and Victorian, Dunedin was settled by waves of Scottish migrants from the late 1840s. Today Dunedin is still known as the 'Edinburgh of the South'. It was built at the head of Otago Harbour, a long inlet running from the sea on the southeast coast of the South Island. Gold, discovered in hinterland areas in the 1860s, made Dunedin the wealthiest city in early New Zealand and underpinned its economy. There was money for many handsome, made-to-last Victorian buildings and most of them have survived. Together with a carefully laid out city centre they give Dunedin a charming feel. The building featured here is the Town Hall.

Single $1.50 'Rotorua' gummed stamp.

Rotorua is a tourist town, pure and simple. It grew where it did, in the centre of the North Island's inland thermal and lake area, because of nature's wonders. Few areas in the world have such a concentration of thermal attractions as Rotorua and its environs. The famed pink and white silica terraces on the shores of Lake Rotomahana drew the first overseas tourists but even after the terraces were tragically destroyed by the enormous eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886, visitors continue to flock to Rotorua, lured by spouting geysers, hot springs and pools, boiling mud, steaming vents and coloured terraces. The famous old bathhouse building shown here was built at the turn of the century.

Single $1.80 'Queenstown' gummed stamp.

Queenstown is spectacularly sited, nestled on the eastern shore of beautiful Lake Wakatipu in the shadow of The Remarkables mountain range. It is the South Island's major tourist resort, for both New Zealanders and overseas visitors, and has developed rapidly in recent years. It is just as popular with holidaymakers in summer as in winter when ski fields are packed. It is the hub for countless tourist attractions - old gold diggings, tramping, hunting, fishing, daring bungy jumping, jet boating, white water rafting, heli skiing, scenic flights over the Southern Alps and to Milford Sound, lake excursions and many more. The photograph on this stamp looks over Queenstown toward The Remarkables.