Holyoake

Kiwi have been at the Washington zoo since 1968, when then-Prime Minister Keith Holyoake personally presented the facility with two of the birds.

"The fact that Wallace signed, dated and issued his note ... gives support to the fact that this is the very first example of a postage stamp, which of course every country now uses," owner Alan Holyoake, a businessman and philatelist, told Reuters.

Holyoake came into possession of the Wallace document some 10 years ago.

"You can go to the hairdressers, a pub, a restaurant, a church, a mosque - but I can't see my daughter in my own garden," said Sandra Holyoake, 64, from the Hamilton area, on the north west of the city.

Dudley Holyoake said there was a "huge rush" of memories when he saw a photo of himself as best man at a wedding in 1979.