KEY POINTS:
Ever suffered from a bout of the Kiwi inferiority complex?
That nagging worry that we're a small country at the bottom of the world and that the rest of the world doesn't really care?
Jock Phillips, general editor of online encyclopedia of New Zealand Te Ara, is
an acute sufferer and to combat it has started a blog on the Te Ara website that lists all the things little old New Zealand is top of the world at.
And he found some surprises.
"When I started doing Te Ara I found I was learning things about New Zealand that I didn't know about," Mr Phillips said.
"Te Ara is a complete encyclopedia and covers a lot of territory so one of the great spinoffs is that you can make discoveries you otherwise wouldn't."
The results were an amazing list of Kiwi firsts from things as diverse as the world's largest flag, - actually a kite - and the biggest animal skeleton.
"The flag was designed by an Ashburton guy [kitemaker Peter Lynn] for a Kuwaiti family."
So we can proudly boast that a Kiwi made the world's largest flag - it's just not ours.
One of the most unusual discoveries was the fact New Zealand was the first country in the world to adopt an official time.
"It's funny that a small country across the other side of the world was the first ... you'd think other people would have had problems co-ordinating the time."
His research showed him people sending telegraphs between the North and South Islands were getting annoyed there wasn't someone in the telegraph office to receive it because they had already left work, the time being slightly different in other parts of the country. So an official time was set and with it another first for New Zealand.
The skeleton, which is housed in Canterbury Museum, was "a quite important" discovery, he said.
It's of a blue whale and it washed up on a Canterbury beach early last century.
Mr Phillips doesn't think his list is complete, though, telling the Weekend Herald there were plenty more gems to find throughout New Zealand history.
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
* We have the world's largest kite. Designed by Peter Lynn of Ashburton, it's 1000sq m.
* The first place in the world to have an official time.
* The sea bird capital of the world.
* We have the world's largest animal skeleton. It is the skeleton of a blue whale washed up at Okarito and now housed in the Canterbury Museum.
* The largest recorded geyser in the world was the Waimangu Geyser near Rotorua. It rose to almost 500m but only between 1900 and 1904, after which it became extinct.
* What do you think New Zealand is top of the world at? Email newsdesk@nz herald. co.nz
