KEY POINTS:
No matter how hard they tried to paint it otherwise, the Bangladesh tour was always going to be seen as a lead-in to New Zealand's trip to Australia next month.
But what probably raised a few eyebrows was the starch that Bangladesh have added to their game since being in New Zealand last summer.
Sure, there's plenty more to add and it will come, and they had their familiar tumbles along the way.
But they are improving and it won't be long before they are a handful, if not quite up to the level of their sub-continental chums Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan, in their own conditions.
So any New Zealand players expecting an easy, if steamy three weeks ducking between Dhaka and Chittagong got a surprise.
If the point of assessing any tour is working out who prospered, who trod water and who disappointed with an eye on what lies ahead, the Bangladesh trip threw up plenty of pointers.
The difficulty lies in forming valid impressions at the start of a summer off a three-month layoff against world cricket's weakest test-playing nation. Still, there were nuggets to be gleaned.
The prosperers: Daniel Vettori, Daniel Flynn, Jesse Ryder, Iain O'Brien.
Vettori's form was no surprise.
Most wickets, man of the series, best batting average; talk about leading from the front.
He's as good a left-arm spinner as there is right now and his batting in the first test win was outstanding.
Flynn enhanced his growing reputation as a scrapper who sells his wicket dearly, a rash chop outside his off stump in the first innings at Dhaka the exception.
In time, the gritty lefthander could move up a spot in the batting order, if it's deemed having three dashers one after the other - Ryder, Ross Taylor and Brendan McCullum - isn't working. But for now, leave him where he is to settle into the setup.
Ryder looked the part in his first two tests and would surely have got his maiden test hundred at Dhaka but for a half-baked gentle flick to square leg nine runs short.
He has time to play his shots, one hallmark of the best batsmen.
O'Brien will never be a star but he's an admirable, wholehearted worker.
Vettori dropped a fat hint before the naming of the first test team that he fancied O'Brien in the XI.
Captains, he said, love the luxury of having a bowler whom he knew he could rely on to do a tidy job.
Eight wickets at 11 apiece was an impressive return from the two tests.
The water treaders: Aaron Redmond, Brendan McCullum, Jeetan Patel, Ross Taylor.
Redmond's one important innings came in New Zealand's first test win, where his gritty 79 helped Vettori and Flynn get the job of chasing 317 done.
He doesn't necessarily inspire confidence but the selectors are giving him every chance.
The jury is still out on him, but he'll get the trip to Australia, where he faces an examination altogether more demanding at Brisbane and Adelaide. McCullum's three test innings comprised a daft shot to be caught at mid on, a wretched lbw decision from an incompetent umpire, and a miscued skier at 66 when he seemed to have a century for the taking.
Unless there is a substantial change in selectorial heart, he'll stay at No 5 for Australia, where he'll need big runs or risk dropping a spot or two in the order.
He won't like that, but the rate at which he usually gets his runs means he could be just as effective.
Patel got a fair amount of work in the two tests and had his moments without threatening to slice through an innings.
Taylor was the big disappointment in the tests, where he failed to reach 20 in three innings.
He did hit a fine century in the deciding ODI and was sawn off in the second game.
Australia will be the test for him. Can he move onwards and upwards from the past few months, during which time he's hit his first two test hundreds and often looked the long-term part as the country's best batsman?
Those who missed out: Jamie How and Kyle Mills, with a qualification.
How had one good ODI innings after two poor ones, then missed out during four test innings.
He got a beauty in the first innings of the Dhaka test but will have plenty to reflect upon before Australia.
Mills, in the absence of Chris Martin, was New Zealand's new ball kingpin.
He did the job in the ODIs, but appeared to be one of those more affected by the debilitating conditions.
He tried, but looked frustrated, flat and listless at times.
Vettori was happy to have won the series - "coming here and winning the series was always going to be a little bit more difficult than people presumed" - and delighted at his own form.
He acknowledged the merits of the Bangladesh trip, with Australia coming up.
"The Bangladesh series mainly got guys back to cricket," he said.
"It is better to have played on this tour than going to Australia with no cricket at all, and guys have learned how to bat for longer durations," no doubt with Redmond, Ryder and Flynn particularly in mind.
Much of the quality of the cricket was ordinary, particularly when compared with the high-brow fare on the other channel between India and Australia.
But it's test and ODI series' won, even if their 100 per cent test winning record against Bangladesh was lost.
It now stands at played eight, won seven, drawn one.
Still, job done. The stage now becomes far more challenging.
