Sydney Meetup

Special thanks to Dennis who sends this Meetup card from Sydney!

Sent: 28 February 2016   Received: 15 March 2016   Travelled: 16 days

Year of the Monkey: Australia

Super huge thanks to Dennis for this Monkey Year card from Australia Post.

It's actually a Prepaid postcard but there are additional Monkey Zodiac stamps 

affixed, thank you so much! 

Sent: 10 February 2016   Received: 23 February 2016   Travelled: 13 days

Diamantinasaurus

Diamantinasaurus is a extinct genus of lithostrotian titanosaurian sauropod from Australia that lived during the early Late Cretaceous, about 94 million years ago. The type species of the genus is D. matildae, first described and named in 2009 by Scott Hocknull and colleagues. Meaning "Diamantina reptile", the name is derived from the location of the nearby Diamantina River and the Greek word sauros, "reptile". 

The holotype of Diamantinasaurus was first uncovered over four seasons of excavations near Winton, Queensland, Australia. The bones, found alongside the holotype of Australovenator and crocodylomorphs and molluscs.

Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamantinasaurus

Thank you Dennis for this Dino card sent on 5-10-2015, Palindrome date!

Sent: 5 October 2015   Received: 19 October 2015   Travelled: 14 days

Australia meetup

Thanks to Dennis for this surprise meetup card from Australia!

Sent: 23 August 2015   Received: 4 Sept 2015   Travelled:12 days

Greetings from Australia

Greetings from Australia, Postallove

Thanks to Dennis for the Australia version of this card series. While I don't 

set out to collect them it's rather nice to receive them from friends. What I 

particularly enjoy are the iconic symbols from the different countries, be it animals

architecture,or culture, like the koala and turtle on this card. Thanks Dennis

for the Queen Elizabeth stamp as well, rather ironic as I also sent my GF Malaysia

with a Royalty stamp!

Sent: 31 July 2015   Received: 11 August 2015   Travelled: 11 days

Sri Lanka Monk

YAY! Another monk card for my collection :D

Thank you Dennis for the amazing reflection of a monk paddling in a canoe!

Sri Lanka was one of the places I considered travelling to to see the ancient

history so it's nice to receive a card from there 

Sent:10 May 2015   Received: 19 May 2015   Travelled: 9 days

Cocos

The Territory of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, also called Cocos Islands , is a territory of Australia, located in the Indian Ocean, southwest of Christmas Island and approximately midway between Australia and Sri Lanka.

The territory consists of two atolls and 27 coral islands, of which two, West Island and Home Island, are inhabited with a total population of approximately 600.In 1609, Captain William Keeling was the first European to see the islands, while serving in the East India Company,but they remained uninhabited until the 19th century.

In 1814, a Scottish merchant seaman named Captain John Clunies-Ross stopped briefly at the islands on a trip to India, nailing up a Union Jack and planning to return and settle on the islands with his family in the future.

However, a wealthy Englishman named Alexan

Sydney meetup

Sydney Postcrossing meetup card held on the 18th of April 2015.
Thanks to Dennis for this postcard. Meeting fellow postcard collectors is great, hope you had fun there! :D
Sent: 18 April 2015   Received: 6 May 2015
Travelled: 18 days

Fiji Islands

The population of Fiji is mostly made up of native Fijians, who are Melanesians (54.3%), although many also have Polynesian ancestry, and Indo-Fijians (38.1%), descendants of Indian contract labourers brought to the islands by the British colonial powers in the 19th century. The percentage of the population of Indo-Fijian descent has declined significantly over the last two decades due to migration for various reasons.[58] Indo-Fijians suffered reprisals for a period after the Fiji coup of 2000.[59][60] There is also a small but significant group of descendants of indentured labourers from the Solomon Islands.

About 1.2% are Rotuman—natives of Rotuma Island, whose culture has more in common with countries such as Tonga or Samoa than with the rest of Fiji. There are also small but economically significant groups of Europeans, Chinese, and other Pacific island minorities. The total membership of other ethnic groups of Pacific Islanders is about 7,300.

Relationships between ethnic Fijians and Indo-Fijians in the political arena have often been strained, and the tension between the two communities has dominated politics in the islands for the past generation. The level of political tension varies among different regions of the country.

Thanks to Dennis for this lovely postcard of Fiji islands!

Received: 21 April 2015

Australia's balloon

A Valentine maxicard from Australia feauting a heart shaped hot air balloon.

Thanks to Dennis for this heartwarming surprise!

Sent:16 March 2015   Received: 2 April 2015   Travelled: 17 days

Aitutaki, Cook Islands

Aitutaki, also traditionally known as Araura, Ararau and Utataki, is one of the Cook Islands, north of Rarotonga. It has a population of approximately 2,000. Aitutaki is the second most visited island of the Cook Islands. The main village is Arutanga (Arutunga) on the west side.
Aitutaki is famous for its turquoise central lagoon, uninhabited islands and palm-fringed beaches. Another advantage is that until now it has been spared by mass tourism. Noteworthy also are an old church (the oldest in the Cook Islands) and some gigantic Banyan trees (Ficus prolixa).

Tapuaetai (One Foot Island), a small islet in the south-east of the lagoon, is often said to be the most important attraction. It is regarded as providing the visitor with the best views of the Aitutaki lagoon and, depending on the tide, one is able to walk on a sandbank a decent distance away from Tapuaetai. The trip to this island is the most frequented trip available on Aitutaki. One Foot Island was awarded "Australasia's Leading Beach" at the World Travel Awards held in Sydney in June 2008.

Another beautiful postcard of Cook Island, thank you Dennis!

Sent: 5 March 2015   Received: 25 March 2015   Travelled:20 days

Cook Islands

The Cook Islands were first settled in the 6th century CE by Polynesian people who migrated from Tahiti,an island 1154 km to the northeast of Cook Islands.

Spanish ships visited the islands in the 16th century; the first written record of contact with the islands came with the sighting of Pukapuka by Spanish sailor Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira in 1595 who called it San Bernardo (Saint Bernard). Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, a Portuguese captain working for the Spanish crown, made the first recorded European landing in the islands when he set foot on Rakahanga in 1606, calling it Gente Hermosa (Beautiful People).

British navigator Captain James Cook arrived in 1773 and 1777[11] and named the islands the Hervey Islands; the name "Cook Islands", in honour of Cook, appeared on a Russian naval chart published in the 1820s.

Thanks to Dennis for the beautiful postcard. Sent in envelope from Australia

Sent: 5 March 2015   Received: 25 March 2015   Travelled: 20 days

Blue Mountains National Park

The Blue Mountains National Park is a protected national park that is located in the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The 267,954-hectare national park is situated approximately 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of Sydney, and the park boundary is quite irregular as it is broken up by roads, urban areas and inholdings.Despite the name 'mountains', the area is an uplifted plateau, dissected by a number of larger rivers. The highest point in the park is Mount Werong at 1,215 metres  above sea level; while the low point is on the Nepean River at 20 metres  above sea level as it leaves the park.

The national park is one of the eight protected areas that, in 2000, was inscribed to form part of the UNESCO World Heritage–listed Greater Blue Mountains Area. The Blue Mountains National Park is the most central of the eight protected areas within the World Heritage Site and it forms part of the Great Dividing Range. The park is also listed on the Australian Heritage Register and the overall complex of Blue Mountains regional walking tracks is listed on the State Heritage Register.

Thanks to Dennis for the beautiful postcard and the Year of the Goat 

First Day Cover, both very beautiful pieces that came into the mail today.

Sent: 5 March 2015   Received: 25 March 2015   Travelled: 20 days

Year of the Goat - Australia

Thanks to dear Dennis from Australia for this lovely Year of the Goat card

issued by Australia Post and also for the extra Zodiac stamps on the back.

Sent: 18 February 2015   Received: 10 March 2015   Travelled: 20 days

Southern Lights

Souther Lights from Goats Buff, South Arm Peninsula, Tasmania

Photograph:James Garlick

Thanks to Denny for this lovely maxicard of the Aurora Australis.

Sent: 22 September 2014   Received: 10 October 2014   Travelled: 18 days

New Caledonia

New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, 1,210 km (750 mi) east of Australia and 16,136 km (10,026 mi) east of Metropolitan France.The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Chesterfield Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of Pines, and a few remote islets. The Chesterfield Islands are in the Coral Sea. Locals refer to Grande Terre as "Le Caillou" ("the stone").

New Caledonia has a land area of 18,576 km2 . Its population of 268,767 consists of a mix of Kanak people (the original inhabitants of New Caledonia), people of European descent (Caldoches and Metropolitan French), Polynesian people (mostly Wallisians), and Southeast Asian people, as well as a few people of Pied-Noir and Maghreban descent. The capital of the territory is Nouméa.

This wonderful card comes from Dennis who was ringing in the New Year from a cruise in 

this part of Oceania ,thank you for this rare gem! 

Sent: 3 January 2015   Received: 28 January 2015   Travelled: 25 days

Australasian Antartic Expedition

At work: Washing Film

The Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) was an Australasian scientific team that explored part of Antarctica between 1911 and 1914. It was led by the Australian geologist Douglas Mawson, who was knighted for his achievements in leading the expedition. In 1910 he began to plan an expedition to chart the 3,200-kilometre-long (2,000 mi) coastline of Antarctica to the south of Australia. The Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science approved of his plans and contributed substantial funds for the expedition. The remaining funds were raised by public subscription and additional donations.

Accomplishments were made in geology, glaciology and terrestrial biology, unlike both of Ernest Shackleton's following expeditions which produced very little science. In a celebration of the achievements of Mawson and his men, a centenary scientific voyage, retracing the route of the original expedition, departed from Australasia in late 2013 and became stuck on 24 December 2013.

Southern lights

Southern Lights from Dru Point, Margate, Tasmania.

The Southern Lights (Aurora Australis) are the counterpart of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis). Auroras most commonly occur above a band of high latitudes in each hemisphere, known as the auroral zones. Each auroral zone is centred on the Earth’s magnetic poles, and lies between latitudes of approximately 50˚ and 60˚. The Southern Lights are less commonly seen than their northern counterpart, as there are comparatively few populated regions under the auroral zone of the Southern Hemisphere.

The Southern Lights are best seen from the islands of the Southern Ocean and Antarctica. In Australia, they are occasionally observed in the southern skies of Tasmania.

Thank you Dennis for this amazing card and expanding my little 

collection of Aurora lights! I never knew that one could also see 

the aurora lights from Australia. 

Sent: 7 October 2014   Received: 16 October 2014   Travelled: 9 days

Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean some 1,400 kilometres east of the Australian mainland. The first European known to have sighted the island was Captain James Cook, in 1774, on his second voyage to the South Pacific on HMS Resolution. He named it after Mary Howard, Duchess of Norfolk (c. 1712 – 1773)
This joint stamp issue features the endemic Norfolk Island Pine, Araucaria heterophylla; a symbol of the island. The Norfolk Island Pine is also widely grown in Australia, particularly in coastal regions, as an ornamental tree. The $1.40 stamp design shows the Old Military Barracks at Kingston on Norfolk Island, built in 1832 during the Second Settlement (1825–1855) and now home to the island’s Legislative Assembly. Norfolk Island Pines line Cottesloe Beach in Western Australia.

Thank you Dennis for the beautiful maxicard of Norfolk Island! 

Sent:21 September 2014   Received: 10 October 2014   Travelled: 19 days

Qantassaurus

Qantassaurusis a genus of two-legged, plant-eating ornithischian dinosaur that lived in Australia about 115 million years ago, when the continent was still partly south of the Antarctic Circle. It was described by Patricia Vickers-Rich and her husband Tom Rich in 1999 after a find near Inverloch, and named after Qantas, the Australian airline.

Qantassaurus is only known from jaw fragments. These are foreshortened compared to related species so its face was probably short and stubby. It had ten teeth in each lower jaw. It probably had a beak, and possessed leaf-shaped teeth back in its cheek, which were shed as they wore down, and replaced by new teeth growing up from the jaw. The teeth had eight distinctive vertical ridges on the outer side with a single larger primary ridge in the centre.

Hehehe I did wonder if the dinosaur was named after the airline.

Thanks to Dennis for this wonderful dinosaur maxicard from Australia.

Received: 5 July 2014