World champions Fabien Tilliet and Jean-Christophe Bette of France had too much class over the closing stages, having struggled with the slightly choppy conditions early in an exciting final.
The first of 22 A finals over the last three days of the regatta turned into a dogfight as the French claimed early advanatage but ceded that to New Zealand at the halfway point of the 2000m race.
However, Tilliet and Bette were back in front with 500m remaining and won in seven minutes, 18.92 seconds, two boat lengths clear of the New Zealanders, who clocked 7min 21.29sec. Canada's Matt Jensen and Rares Crisan were third.
New Zealand missed a medal in the subsequent women's quadruple sculls when they were fourth in the four-crew final.
Genevieve Behrent, Alexandra Burnside, Zoe Stevenson and Lucy Spoors couldn't match the pace of more experienced opponents, with the Netherlands quad of Neth Chantal Achterberg, Nienke Kingma, Carline Bouw and Femke Dekker winning in 7min 21.09sec.
There was a large crowd on hand for the finals, with breezy conditions predominating.
Other medals to be decided this afternoon were in the lightweight women's double scull, lightweight men's double scull, men's four and men's quad.
