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Many New Zealanders, disappointed at the drawn Chappell-Hadlee series when the chance of making history was so strong, will be quick to jump on the bash-the-Black-Caps wagon but from this campaign has come a great deal of promise and interesting developments.
Depth, for one thing. Belief, for another. So it's time to laud people - the selectors - who have been so roundly caned in past times.
Perhaps the most telling development has been the shooting down in flames of the previous regime's contention that "the best players" were already in the Black Caps and that our domestic cricket wasn't really geared up to providing replacements. That sounded like bunkum then - and some of us said so - and it looks like pure fantasy now.
Out of domestic cricket in recent times have come Tim McIntosh, Martin Guptill, Grant Elliott, Daniel Flynn, Neil Broom and Brendon Diamanti.
Many in cricket's governing establishment will still point to academy and New Zealand A/Emerging Players' influence, and fair enough. But it is our domestic cricket which, day in and day out, has provided the platform for these characters to make the step up.
Suddenly, New Zealand's batting - an enormous problem only last year and in much of the John Bracewell era - has options and it has people on whom the Black Caps can call when the likes of Jacob Oram and Jesse Ryder are absent for whatever reason.
Previously, when Oram or another key player has been unavailable, the Black Caps have tended to fold against strong opposition.
Now, however, after a series where they showed a great deal of pluck and pushed Australia close even though they were without Oram, Ryder and Scott Styris and with an impaired Brendon McCullum, they fought all the way and could have won but for Brisbane's tropical downpours.
In previous times, any one of those misfortunes would have been enough to hole the Good Ship Black Caps but this time they sailed on happily.
Elliott has been the standout performer and some of his batting in that terrific 115 showed his class - class which the selectors have to be congratulated for recognising when many of us failed to spot it. They also persevered with him until he bloomed - another bouquet.
Two of his off-drives during that innings were as sweetly timed and played as any I have ever seen coming from a New Zealand bat - full of grace and placement. And he can seemingly bowl without blowing a foo-foo valve. Jacob who?
Elliott, of course, only arrived from South Africa in 2001 and it may be that he is more at home on the bouncier wickets of Australia. It will be interesting to see if he can echo his success on New Zealand's slower, lower pitches.
However, it was in domestic cricket that he first came to notice, scoring 361 runs in seven matches for Wellington, at an average of 45.
Broom also looks promising, although his was a more mixed bag. But he managed to show that he can come in and take the bat to an attack or he can play a more measured, paced innings. One well worth persevering with.
Flynn was quickly forgotten after he was dropped from the one-day side but he remains a fine prospect for test matches (and ODIs if he recovers form). He has a good technique, a fine defence and can bat time but, like Peter Fulton, can struggle if he is asked to pick up the pace, especially early in his innings.
Fulton is another many love to hate but he is averaging over 32 and has a strike rate of 72 in one-day cricket - solid enough. Bracewell always believed he was an opening batsman and it is hard to disagree, although the Black Caps have not always done "two metre Peter" a favour by shuttling him around the order in both forms of the game.
When you have McIntosh, Guptill, Jamie How and Fulton to choose from in the top order, it is clear New Zealand have moved a long way in a short time from the embarrassing pause that might have ensued had team management asked, only a matter of months ago: "Who wants to open or play first drop?"
Add to that the players brought over for the twenty20 international today - Nathan McCullum, Peter McGlashan, James Franklin and Ian Butler. No rookies there and no youngsters either but they add to the depth and the competition that is suddenly in the Black Caps' ranks.
There's just one grumble. Why Craig Cumming? It's easy, of course, to be wise after the event and Cumming had done what this article is praising - performing in domestic cricket.
But most of New Zealand could have predicted the result of bringing back a man, against Australia to boot, who had his international career hanging by a thread and who had the misfortune to score a duck and then drop the catch that turned the match away from the Black Caps in Adelaide.
Why not choose Brendon Diamanti, the "all-rounder" who was nonetheless used to coming in at that part of the batting order and to hitting quick runs - except that he wasn't used to doing it against Australia.
In the end, in the last flurry against Australia, the selectors righted that, choosing Diamanti. It was the right decision, as seen by Diamanti's response.
