Chanderpaul's 122 not out, overtaking Sachin Tendulkar's record and putting him sixth on the all-time scorers' list, left the tourists at 367 all out before New Zealand finished day two of the third Test on 156 for 3.
Ross Taylor, seeking his third century in as many Tests, was on 56 and Brendon McCullum was on 11 after New Zealand lost openers Hamish Rutherford and Peter Fulton cheaply.
Taylor stood in a 95-run partnership with Kane Williamson (58), the second victim for Sunil Narine who was called into the side after Shane Shillingford's ban for an illegal action.
But the real honours for the West Indies lay with Chanderpaul, who came to the rescue and rewrote the record books into the bargain when the tourists were in trouble at 86-5 on the first day.
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His 200-run partnership with Denesh Ramdin (107) and late cameo stands with Permaul (20) and Tino Best (25) gave the West Indies a respectable total to defend.
When Chanderpaul reached his 29th Test hundred by smacking Tim Southee past gully to the boundary, he immediately went down on his knees to kiss the pitch.
Chanderpaul's 122 not out lifted him to 11,199 runs from his 153 Tests, overtaking Allan Border (11,174) as the sixth most prolific run-scoring Test batsmen, and 754 behind fifth-placed Brian Lara.
His 17th unbeaten century also put the 39-year-old one ahead of recently retired Indian great Tendulkar as the batsman holding the most unbeaten Test hundreds.