The 22-year-old, who has 13 goals in 39 caps for his country, was handed the captain’s armband for last week’s friendly in China – scoring the equalising goal in a 1-1 draw.
But with Leicester City’s links to Thailand through parent company King Power, a return to the country evokes some great memories for Wood, who joined the Club’s owners – Chairman and Vice-Chairman Vichai and Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha – in the country to celebrate promotion to the Barclays Premier League during the summer.
"It’s great to be back,” said Wood. “I’ve got some very good memories of the place – we went over twice with the Club in the summer. Obviously we know that our owners are from here too so it’s great to be back again after they brought us out the last few times. It’s a wonderful country to be in.
“We know from our visits here just what a lovely country it is, so it’s nice to be here again with New Zealand. As a Leicester City player it’s great because we know we’ve got some good support out here after we saw the fans in pre-season.
“The owners been great with me, great for the team, great for the Club and the supporters. Their support has been unbelievable.
"The fans out here are very passionate and hopefully there will be a good crowd and a good atmosphere for our game.
“It should be a really good match. We’re having a look at the moment at what the Thailand team is about and how they play. They’re a good side, so we’ll need to be at our best, but I’m really looking forward to the challenge."
Having narrowly missed out on qualification for the 2014 World Cup, New Zealand are looking to their young players like Wood to help build a side capable of making it to the 2018 finals in Russia.
The All Whites made a strong start with a promising display away to China last week, and for Wood, who stood in for regular skipper Winston Reid, it was a special moment to lead the team.
He added: “I found out that I’d be captain when I arrived to meet up with the team. It was a surprise for me, and it was a massive sense of pride and honour. It was so unexpected.
“Not many strikers captain their country so I was very happy. I told my parents straight away and they were very happy about it – probably happier than I was at the time.
“I’ve been part of the set up for a long time now so it’s good to stay involved. We’ve got a long process ahead of us now building up to the next World Cup, and we know there’s a lot of hard work ahead of us.
“It was a tough game against China. We had three or four very good opportunities and if we were a bit more clinical on the day then we could have won the game. So as long as there are positives we take can take them and bring them into the game against Thailand.”