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Kiwi Inventions
- New Zealand entrepreneur and daredevil AJ Hackett opened the world's first commercial bungy site in 1988. In June 1987 AJ bungy jumped illegally from the Eiffel Tower. AJ Hackett now lives in Paris.
- New Zealand brothers Davis and Andrew Akers created the world's first Zorb, a unique adventure activity involving a giant plastic ball, a slope and speeds of up to 50 kilometres per hour.
- New Zealand farmer William Hamilton developed the world's first propellerless jet boat in 1953. He went on to invent the hay lift, an advanced air compressor, a machine to smooth ice on skating ponds and the water sprinkler amongst other things.
- New Zealand scientist Baron Ernest Rutherford was the first in the world to split the atom in 1919. He was awarded a Nobel Prize for his efforts in radioactivity.
- New Zealand referee William Atack was the world's first to use a whistle to stop a game of sport in 1884.
- New Zealand inventor Ernest Godward invented among other things, eggbeaters, burglar proof windows and the world’s first spiral hair pin.
- New Zealand running great, Arthur Lydiard invented jogging, a training technique that saw his two protégés Peter Snell and Murray Halberg win gold medals on the same day at the 1960 Rome Olympics.
- New Zealand inventor, Alan Gibbs, invented the world's first high speed sports amphibian, the Aquada.
- A computer-controlled surf reef designed by a New Zealand company has been built in the United States, fuelling dreams of turning surfing into an international stadium sport. Dr Black - a surfer, oceanographer and former Waikato University professor - led the team who designed the Versareef, which can be moulded into different shapes by computer controls.
- In New Zealand you can find an artificial surfing reef at the surf town of Mount Maunganui.
- In Wellington a proposed artificial reef at Lyall Bay is said to make Wellington a top surfing spot, by boosting good surfing days from 27 to between 118 and 142 each year.
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