Kane Williamson was on 22 while captain Brendon McCullum was five not out at the break after India's Mahendra Singh Dhoni had won his sixth successive toss and wasted little time in asking the hosts to bat on the grassy, drop-in pitch.
Cool, overcast conditions had also aided the visitors' three-pronged pace attack of Mohammed Shami, Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma, who had figures of 2-8 from six overs at the break.
Sharma had backed up the initial pressure applied by Shami, whose first six overs cost just five runs, and Zaheer, who joined the test side to add some experience to their attack.
The tall Sharma had Hamish Rutherford in all sorts of trouble in his first over before the lefthander pushed at a short ball and was well caught by a diving Ajinkya Rahane in the gully for six to leave the hosts on 19 for one.
The wicket was his 150th in Tests and he quickly added to that tally when he had the dangerous Ross Taylor caught by Ravindra Jadeja at wide mid-off for three.
Taylor had scored a century in New Zealand's first innings of their past three Test matches against West Indies last December and had also finished the one-day series against India with successive centuries.
Zaheer had earlier made an immediate impact by drawing a thick outside edge from opener Peter Fulton on the first delivery he bowled only for third slip Shikhar Dhawan to dive in front of Rohit Sharma, who was better placed to take the catch, and drop it.
To rub salt into the wound, Fulton then clipped Zaheer through midwicket for a boundary off the next ball and repeated it on the final ball of the over, the second of the day.
Zaheer, however, had the final say when he trapped Fulton in front for 13 when the tall right-hander played across the line of a ball that struck his back leg.
Taylor quickly followed to leave New Zealand 30-3 and in real danger of a collapse before McCullum and Williamson saw them through to the break.
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