By claiming medal No 15 in a haul of five today, it has taken its total past the previous record of 13 set in 1988 and 2012. Its four golds, however, remain behind the eight of 1984 and the six in London four years ago.
Lisa Carrington became the first New Zealand woman to win two medals in one Games. After defending her K1 200m canoe sprint title, she dug deep to claim a bronze in the K1 500m last night. With three medals, two of them gold, she must now go down alongside the country's greatest Olympians.
She is not the only one to achieve that status at these Games.
Mahe Drysdale won a second-straight gold in the men's single sculls rowing by the smallest of margins. Had it not been for a serious illness in Beijing eight years ago, when he won bronze, that would likely have been three in a row.
Hamish Bond and Eric Murray were rowing's other huge success, as the favourites crushed their opponents to defend their gold medal in the men's pair. It is hard to think of a team from anywhere that has maintained the level of dominance these two have over the past eight years, let alone just from New Zealand.
Then there was Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, so dominant they had wrapped up the 49er class sailing before the final race. They entered as hot favourites, but having not won a medal previously, there must have been a certain amount of pressure on them.
Natalie Rooney and Luuka Jones both flew under the radar heading into the Games, but picked up silver medals in the shooting and canoe slalom respectively, two of eight Kiwis to do so. Ironically it is the silver medal that has eluded New Zealand athletes over the years, having picked up just 18 prior to these Games, in contrast to 42 golds and 39 bronzes.
It is a long way from the horror stories some were telling early on, especially after the 'woeful Wednesday' performance early on in the piece. That day saw a gold medal go begging in the equestrian, a world champion rowing crew fail to progress to their final and the men's sevens team drop their opening game to Japan. They were all potential medals, but the nature of sport is that it is unpredictable and that is what makes it so great.
Perhaps a few more golds would have been nice, but you can hardly complain. When they talk about New Zealand's showing at the Rio Games they will talk about it as being one of its best.