Wellington the greediest little capital?

It's claimed the title of "coolest little capital", but is Wellington also the greediest little capital in the world?

Not only is it the capital of New Zealand, but Wellington holds or is chasing at least 14 other capital titles.

While it leaves little for other cities, they're welcome to claim some of their own titles, said Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency general manager of venues, marketing, and destination development David Perks.

The city claims to be the coolest little capital, the capital of culture, the film capital, culinary capital, craft beer capital, coffee capital, creative capital and most liveable capital.

In 1993 it was declared a Peace Capital by then-mayor Fran Wilde, after the city declared itself nuclear free.

Wellington is also aiming to be the first Smokefree, predator-free, sexual violence-free capital, as well as the smart capital and te reo capital.

But Perks doesn't think the city is getting a little out of control with all its title-claiming.

"We're a city with ambitions and we want everybody to buy into it," he said.

A few years ago, Absolutely Positively Wellington put out a video titled "Wellington is the Capital of Absolutely Positively Everything", poking fun at itself for just how many titles the city was trying to scrape together.

"Wellingtonians are just so passionate about whatever it is they're into," Perks said.

While the windy city might be a good spot for sailing, it hasn't tried to claim the sailing capital title, he said.

"I think the ones that people claim, they need to be worthy."

He thought some of the titles were subsets of others - arts, culinary and craft beer could all fit into being the creative capital, which went hand in hand with being the capital of culture.

"I think the creative capital kind of tag is a really good descriptor of Wellington. It's the way people go about their business."

Perks was also a big believer in the coolest little capital title.

"Wellington definitely took coolest little capital and it's hard to find anywhere that goes up against it."

The city adopted the title in 2011 when Lonely Planet declared it such in their Best in Travel guide.

Mayor at the time, Celia Wade-Brown, said the title stuck.

"I think it stuck because it's true."

She believed the rest of the titles Wellington had picked up just went to show how it was the most liveable city in the world, which it was named as for the second year running in Deutsche Bank's list of 50 cities with the best quality of life.

"On the arts side we're pretty busy but we also have quite a social conscience," she said.

She thought Wellington should also be the volunteer capital of the world.

Part of what made the city so wonderful was the amount of diversity it contained in such a small space, she said.

"People from all around the world live here."

Mayor Justin Lester said Wellington was "capital in everything we do".

"We are proud of the fact that we are New Zealand's capital and as a result it's our responsibility to lead on particular initiatives."