The Football Ferns completed a comfortable 2-0 win over Argentina in Brisbane on Sunday - thanks, in part, to an audacious strike from fullback CJ Bott.
New Zealand produced a nice bounce-back effort, after a 2-0 loss to Australia last week in their opening Cup of Nations fixture.
The South Americans posed little threat to the Ferns, who are ranked 17 spots above them in the world rankings, but the win will greatly comfort coach Tom Sermanni, with a World Cup just months away.
Bott's superb goal doubled New Zealand's lead with 20 minutes to go and came just moments after she replaced right-back Sarah Morton.
Receiving the ball just inside her own half, Bott let rip. The result - a wonder goal that will remain with Bott for the rest of her career.
"I'm very stoked," she said afterwards. "My role is just to put the ball in the box, so I'm pretty happy to score a goal like that.
"We had a gameplan. It was a bit messy in the first half, but we did well to pull it back together and it's good for our confidence to get a win after the Australia game."
Former Juventus striker Katie Rood opened the scoring in the 50th minute, latching onto a deflected save from a Paige Satchell shot, calmly slotting the ball into the back of the net.
Sermanni was delighted with the overall performance.
"It was a little bit scratchy, but the positives are that we won the game and came away with a clean sheet," Sermanni said.
"We know we have some work to do, because it was still a little rusty."
Australia dispatched South Korea in the second game of the double-header, meaning just a draw against Argentina will be enough to secure a tournament win for the Matildas.
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