A working transit of the Atalante (TRANSNOR, October 1993) has furnished a detailed bathymetric swath showing the morphostructure of the continental slope NW of New Zealand between 168-degrees-40' and 170-degrees-20' East. The remarkable linearity, the steepness of the slope and the presence of a long detached block oriented parallel to the margin, lead us to interpret this sector (with the aid of seismic profiles) as a segment of the Vening Meinesz Fracture Zone that was active locally in the Early Miocene during the geodynamic evolution of this part of the SW Pacific.