Tui for my birthday

Another birthday card. This one s from New Zealand and it shows Tui bird sitting on Potuhukawa blooming tree. I love this card!

Harbour Bridge, New Zealand

It was a bit strange to recieve postcard from New Zealand that wasn't from my boyfriend ;) I've discovered Round Robins on postcrossing  forum and I think my wallet will be pernamently empty. Luckily I need to gain trust first so I can take part only in one RR group from Bridges RR. I'm doing my best to not even check other groups ;)

Bridge that can be seen on the postcard shows Auckland Harbour Bridge which is a part of state Highway 1- the longest road in the North Island. There are 8 lines for the cars and- what is suprising to me - there is no walking or cycling access. Only tourists can walk on the span  when they are on guided tours. I found some facts about the bridge here

• The Auckland Harbour Bridge was opened on 30th of May 1959 and it took over 200 workers around 4 years to build.

• It was made with 6500 tonnes of concrete and nearly 6000 tonnes of steel.

• When the bridge was first built it only had four lanes but after a few years they needed to make the bridge bigger to cope with all the traffic so they added two lanes to each side. The new lanes were called “clippons” because they were made in Japan, shipped to New Zealand on huge ships and then clipped into place with huge steel pins and rods.

• The Auckland Harbour Bridge cost 16 million dollars to build over 40 years ago! The clippons were another 13.5 million dollars1

• They decided to build a harbour bridge because the traffic wanting to go from Auckland City to the North Shore or vice versa was growing all the time and the trip round the harbour through West Auckland used to take hours. 

• Before the bridge was built vehicles and passengers also used ferries to get from one side to the other. Ferries are boats that take either cars or passengers or both.

• The span between the water and the bridge is about 15 stories high – high enough for most yachts to sail under but not high enough for many of the cruise ships, tankers and cargo ships that come into the Auckland Wharfs

• The bridge is 1,021 meters long (nearly 10 rugby fields long)

New Zealand stamps

Stamps are the part of each letter or postcard that we recieve. I love countries whose postal offices design nice, funny or beautiful stamps. I'm quite dissapointed by Polish stamps- regular ones  are just ugly. There were few stamp designs that won the contest for the most beautiful european stamp but those were limited editions and really hard to find in the post offices.

Today some stamps from my soon to be place of living- New Zealand

Postage stamps have been issued in New Zealand since around the 18th to 20th of July 1855 with the "Chalon head" stamps figuring Queen Victoria. The design was based on a full face portrait of the Queen in her state robes at the time of her coronation in 1837, by Alfred Edward Chalon. The stamps were initially hand cut from sheets, but from 1862 on, these sheets started being fed through automatic perforation machines. New Zealand was the first country in the world to prototype and install stamp vending machines; one was installed in the General Post Office, Wellington in 1905. 

Birds of New Zealand

New Zealand as a country located on an archipelago is very isolated and thanks to that 75% of the species are endemic. The most famous bird from New Zealand is Kiwi but it's obviously not the only one. 

My favourite is Little Blue Penguin which is the smallest species of penguins in the world and it lives only in New Zealand and Australia (they were also spoted in Chile and South Africa but there were only few cases). It has few different names-Fairy Penguin, Little Penguin, Blue Penguin, Kororā. I have a thing for those birds- I remember spending over an hour just looking at penguins in Zoo in Prague ;) The Little Blue one is only 30-33 cm tall and weights1,5 kg. I'm not the only one who likes those birds- Linus Torvalds had a "fixation for flightless, fat waterfowl" and claims to have contracted "penguinitis" after being gently nibbled by a penguin: "Penguinitis makes you stay awake at nights just thinking about penguins and feeling great love towards them." Torvalds' supposed illness is a joke, but he really was bitten by a Little Penguin on a visit to the National Zoo & Aquarium, Australia.Torvalds was looking for something fun and sympathetic to associate with Linux, and a slightly fat penguin sitting down after having had a great meal perfectly fit the bill. 

Pōhutukawa

 Pōhutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa) is really beautiful evergreen tree from New Zealand. It's one of endemic species to the country.  The blooming time is November-January and because of that it is also known as New Zealand Christmas tree. The tree grows up to 25 meters and largest one in New Zealand is at Te Araroa on the East Coast. 

 Pōhutukawa is very popular tree and it's easy to grow but it makes it invasive- the roots may destroy sidewalks or the underground installations. 

Kiwi, kiwi, kiwi

I'm one of those lucky ones that has a boyfriend who understands and supports girl's passion. Mine even helps me with my little collection and this postcard is from him :)

Kiwi postcard from a Kiwi 

Kiwis are the most recognizable symbol of New Zealand. The relation is so strong that  world 'kiwi' became also an informal synonim of New Zealander. New Zealand dollar is often called a kiwi dollar. During the Firts World War the soliders from New Zealand were called kiwis and they have carved a giant kiwi on the chalk hill in England. Kiwi is present in the coates of arms, crests and badges all over in the country.

Kiwis are flightless, cute birds which are endangered due to deforestation. The birds are quite shy and they are active by night. Unlikely to the other birds, Kiwis have highly developed sense of smell and they have nostrils located at the top of the beak. They eat fruits and insects. 

Kiwis are monogamists- once bonded they live entire life together and the relationships may last up to 20 years. Isn't that great? The egg can weight 1/4 of the body weight and it's the biggest among the birds in proportion to their body size. That means that their eggs may be 6 x bigger than chicken eggs! Similary to pinguins, the male incubates the egg.

The Māori calls themselves the Kiwi guardians and also believe that birds are under protected by Tane Mahuta- god of the forest.

I can't wait till I see a kiwi myself. 

Cable car

Today one of my favourite postcards showing a cable car in Wellington, New Zealand. I like it for few reasons. One of the them is the person who sent it to me- my boyfriend. That train is a part of his daily life. I love the colour of it and the train itself. It is widely recognized as a symbol of Wellington.

Cable Car is Wellington's most popular tourist attractions. The cars run from Lambton Quay in the commercial heart of the city, tunnel under the corporate towers of The Terrace and emerges in Kelburn.

The ride continues past Kelburn Park and the Victoria University to the top of Upland Road, where the Lookout, Carter Observatory, Planetarium and Cable Car Museum are located. The view from the lookout takes in the city's central business district and out across the harbour to the Hutt Valley, Eastbourne and Mt. Victoria

Cable Cars history takes us back to the end of 19th centaury when Wellington was expending rapidly and there was a need for a new transportation. In 1898 the City Council granted permission for the investition of building a tramway connecting Kelburn and the city. The designer of the system was James Fulton and he was responsible for both selecting the route and deciding the method of operation, a hybrid between a cable car and a funicular. Like a cable car, the line had a continuous loop haulage cable that the cars gripped using a cable car gripper, but it also had a funicular-style balance cable permanently attached to both cars over an undriven pulley at the top of the line. It was opened to the public on 22 February 1902. Since 1947 the Cable Car is owned and operated by Wellington Cable Car Ltd, owned by Wellington City Council.

The normal operating speed is 18 km/h (5 m/s), with a maximum passenger load of around 100 (30 seated, 70 standing). Each car weighs approximately 13.5 t when empty and 21 t when full.