Dhawan failed to judge Wagner's fiery bouncer and was caught behind by Bradley Watling. He smashed 12 boundaries and a scintillating six in his valiant 115-run innings.
Dhawan is only the second Indian batsman to hit a century in the fourth innings in an away Test match. Only Sunil Gavaskar has done it before and he did it four times.
Earlier, Wagner broke the 126-run partnership between Dhawan and Virat Kohli (67) when he had the latter caught behind in similar fashion by Watling.
Dhawan and Kohli brought up their 100-run stand in the second session of the day after taking the Indian second innings score to 180/2 at lunch.
India scored 93 runs in the first session of the day with the loss of Cheteshwar Pujara's wicket.
Kohli got to his ninth half-century in the last over before lunch, the last ball of which was hit for a four by Dhawan.
Dhawan and Kohli batted solidly and patiently to put up a 50-run stand off 111 balls and take India over the 150-run mark.
The stand came after Tim Southee bowled a superb outswinger to have Cheteshwar Pujara caught behind by Bradley Watling early in the day.
Dhawan brought up his maiden Test fifty in the first over of the day after he and Pujara resumed the Indian second innings in pursuit of a 407-run victory target.
The third day was a staggering day of Test cricket in which 264 runs were scored for 17 wickets. It was a day of tremendous ups and downs.
New Zealand started the day with blood on their hands as they skittled out the Indians for 202, taking a commanding lead of 301 runs. But skipper Brendon McCullum did not enforce the follow-on.
Just when the Kiwis thought they were firmly on top, Indians decided to give them a taste of their own medicine and knocked them out for a paltry 105 with Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma doing most of the damage.
India are chasing history as a target of 407 runs has never been scaled in the fourth innings by an Indian team to win a Test match.
The Indians started positively with Dhawan and Murali Vijay both looking confident. Vijay lost his wicket rather unluckily when he was caught down the leg side but Pujara and Dhawan ensured that there were no further hiccups.
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