Opener Tillekaratne Dilshan struck his nineteenth ODI ton to grapple Sri Lanka's 252 for four for a six-wicket win.
There were helpful hands from Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene while skipper Angelo Mathews pulled the winning races to the wall to be on 39 when the win was accomplished with 14 balls to extra.
Dilshan drove magnificently, and cut and pulled with relish in his 116 off 127 balls, to overwhelm the innings.
All the Sri Lankan batsmen kept the runs having a go at an OK cut so there was never an issue of needing to stress over run rates.
Matt Henry, not picked for the World Cup, was the pick of the New Zealand bowlers, taking two for 34 off 9.4 overs.
New Zealand's innings was a mix, in which the terrible far exceeded the great.
Skipper Brendon Mccullum slapping an exciting 117, his fifth ODI century, however the innings was defaced later by four run outs, including three in 10 balls.
The impact was New Zealand totally butchered the chance for a sizeable score in great batting conditions on a warm evening.
Mccullum got the measure of Sri Lanka's assault from the begin, striking five sixes and 12 fours in his innings.
The limits at Seddon Park aren't long enough when Mccullum is in his current rich structure.
He confronted 99 balls yet with Ross Taylor out of sorts, 34 off 69 balls, it tumbled to the center request to press on. They didn't.
Four wickets succumbed to 14 in 29 balls. The five-over strategic maneuver created three for 15 as New Zealand collapsed.
Dan Vettori, Luke Ronchi - without confronting a ball - Corey Anderson and Nathan Mccullum all tumbled to run outs, with jumbled running and complete absence of correspondence disappointing them.
There were two wickets each for spinners Rangana Herath and Sachithra Senanayake while Dilshan and Jeevan Mendis did their part in putting an issue on New Zealand.
The third ODI is at Eden Park on Saturday.
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