Black Ferns winger Ruby Tui. Photo: Photosport
Wingers Ruby Tui and Mererangi Paul scored seven tries between them as the Black Ferns crushed Wales 70-7 in their WXV1 test in Dunedin.
World champions New Zealand returned to their best form after opening the tournament with an 18-17 loss to France last week - ending a sequence of 16 successive test wins which included a triumph at last year's World Cup on home soil.
Second-ranked New Zealand's speed, flair and handling were too much for the sixth-ranked Welsh throughout a lop-sided contest.
The Black Ferns backline sent the ball wide to good effect and the wingers were the chief beneficiaries - most notably World Cup star Tui, whose four tries were all in the right-hand corner and came in the space of 13 minutes in a dizzying period midway through the first half.
Up 27-0 at halftime, Paul bagged a second-half double while reserve flanker Lucy Jenkins crossed twice late in the game.
The other try-scorers were Amy du Plessis, Katelyn Vaha'akolo and Ruahei Demant.
The scoreline was a notch up on two heavy wins for New Zealand over the Welsh at the World Cup - when they won 56-12 in the pool stages and 55-3 in the quarter-finals.
Coach Bunting wary
Coach Alan Bunting told Sky Sport his team will need to quickly regroup before they round out the tournament next week against unbeaten England, the world No.1 ranked side in what will be a repeat of last year's World Cup final.
"We can't run it from everywhere for 80 minutes and we're going to come up against a pretty well-oiled English team next week so we're going to have to be a bit smarter with how we play," Bunting said.
"But I'm really proud of our ladies with their effort, especially on defence. We've still a few things to work on."
Wales captain Hannah Jones could only reflect on a lone second-half try to flanker Abbie Fleming.
"It's a tough day at the office but we're here to play at this level," she said.
"We're at the top tier, we're here to play that type of rugby at that type of level and we're only going to get better from this. Our long aim is the World Cup and this is just part of the journey."
Australia stun France
In the late game, Australia stunned France 29-20 to produce just their second win in six meetings between the sides and the first since 2010.
The fifth-ranked Wallaroos hero was prop Eva Karpani, who barged over from close range three times to score a match-winning hat-trick.
Two of them came in the second half after Australia led just 12-10 at the break.
Down by 19 points, third-ranked France scored two late tries but never threatened the jubilant Australians.
The result leaves England as the only unbeaten team in the tournament through two rounds.
- RNZ