She and the rest of the field are chasing first-round leader Anne-Lise Caudel from France who claimed eight birdies but marred her round when she double-bogeyed the 18th. Three others, Samantha Troyanovich, Nanna Koerstz Madsen and Marianne Skarpnord all shot 67.
Part of Ko's difficulty, she admitted, was she did not factor in the change of pace on the greens from her last tournament in Melbourne to this event in Christchurch.
"It's very different. Last week you were trying to pitch it 10 short of the green and get it to run up and asking for it to stop and this week you are saying let's hit it, let's be aggressive.
"It was tough for me to come in and say 'you can hit it by' and be confident."
The greens in Melbourne were much quicker than Clearwater and Ko admitted she had not adapted to the changes well enough and needed to get in that mode and drive better when she tees off early today.
It was her fault she had not adjusted or done enough preparation for the change in putting conditions but amid those troubles she had been buoyed by the huge crowds which followed her group.
She favoured a draw with her driver but pulled a couple when she was aiming left to counter the wind and ended up in trouble. More concentration and course management were the answers for greens which would likely be faster for the second round.
"The wind wasn't crazy today - I've seen it go much worse so I think we were pretty fortunate to have this amount in the afternoon."
Ko, clad in blue and grey, stretched and chatted animatedly with her playing partners Su Oh and Charley Hull before she was called to her opening tee shot yesterday amid generous applause.
She showed the middle of the fairway to her teenage playing partners and waved an appreciative hand to the applause. Those on the housing project beside the 10th green - Ko's first hole - and bordering the 11th tee, got an extended view of the teenager as her group endured a lengthy holdup to wait for a ruling on playing partner Su Oh.
Ko had the length to reach that opening par 5 in two but her fairway metal slid into one of the front bunkers and she made par from the trap.
For much of her opening nine she seemed to be working hard to get her game in sync.
She drove the ball way left on the 15th and after a penalty drop saved bogey while she also tugged her drive left and avoided similar trouble on the 17th.
Her game got tighter after the turn as she birdied both the par 5s and narrowly missed converting several other strong iron shots.
Leaderboard
66: Anne-Lise Caudal (France)
67: Nanna Koerstz Madsen (Denmark), Samantha Troyanovich (USA), Marianne Skarpnord (Norway)
