New Zealand missed the cool head and steady eye of goal attack Maria Tutaia, who was rested after tweaking an ankle in training on Saturday.
But although the Silver Ferns started with the same intensity that featured in their 60-goal win over Fiji three days ago, world No.6 South Africa proved a different proposition.
Overall, Silver Ferns coach Waimarama Taumaunu was satisfied with the effort.
"I thought we were relatively safe - in the end our shooting was about 84 per cent," she said.
"Probably we didn't get as much ball as we're used to, but I thought they worked really hard to keep the ball away from us."
The Silver Ferns led 16-9 at the first break but the wheels fell off somewhat in the second quarter as the midcourt struggled to find flow into the attacking third.
Honours were evenly shared at 15-15 for the spell, with New Zealand taking a 31-24 lead into halftime.
The hiccup wasn't a major cause for concern, Taumaunu said.
"We had a couple of individual and quite uncharacteristic errors from our front line, that was all that was."
Goal shoot Lenize Potgieter shouldered most of the attacking responsibilities for the Proteas, missing only four attempts in a player-of-the-match performance to finish with 91 per cent accuracy over 60 minutes.
Taumaunu benched Francois at halftime, shifting Langman to centre and bringing Kayla Cullen on at wing defence.
Leana de Bruin, rested against Fiji with a finger injury, replaced Katrina Grant at goal defence as the Silver Ferns looked to generate more turnover ball.
The new combinations took a little time to settle, but by the end of the third quarter New Zealand had re-established dominance, building up a 52-34 lead at the last break then maintaining momentum to the final whistle.
Proteas coach Norma Plummer, who coached Australia to their last world title in 2011, said her players had suffered from early nerves.
"But I thought in the second quarter, once we got them going and they relaxed a bit more, that was excellent.
"I'm pretty pleased, but there's still so much work to do."
The second Test is scheduled for Tuesday in Auckland.
