KEY POINTS:
Travel can be a terrific learning experience. So here are five things we've discovered about the New Zealand team during the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy:
1. The size of the gulf between Australia and New Zealand at this moment is more pronounced than feared.
Okay, we knew there was a
gap - but this wide? Australia are a well-drilled outfit, chockful of class batsmen, genuine pace and aggression from their bowlers, a slick fielding operation, with one question mark over their spinner.
They have a trick for all situations, a solution for any predicaments.
Shaun Tait's return has added zip to the bowling; James Hopes was a tidy all-round performer in Adelaide and Hobart with bat and ball and if a couple of the specialist batsmen fail, there are a few others to step in and do the business.
An under-strength New Zealand were always up against it; their below-par performances only made the gap more pronounced.
New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori referred to Australia as "well out in front of us". He's right.
2. The top order batting is still a work in progress. Add to that, what you get at the top you lose lower down.
Brendon McCullum has made no secret of his liking for opening. He got a strong 81 in the ODI win against South Africa in Port Elizabeth and a classy, calculated 96 in Adelaide, but gave his wicket away softly and then missed out with a couple of ordinary shots in Sydney and Hobart.
McCullum at the top means no McCullum at No 7 where he's been such an effective late-overs operator.
Remember when New Zealand could perm a combination of Chris Cairns/Craig McMillan/Jacob Oram/McCullum round the 6-8 spots? Bracing hitters who could pull New Zealand home? But to lift the old Frank Sinatra line "you can't have one without the other", and that's New Zealand's dilemma.
Lou Vincent is gone again and Jamie How, despite failing in his last two innings, got big runs in South Africa and deserves another chance.
3. Get well, Shane.
Kyle Mills and Chris Martin are New Zealand's best new-ball bowlers, one a wholehearted trier who was player of the series in South Africa; the other a bloke who possesses a touch of real class at times and is the country's eighth highest test-wicket taker.
But, as if it wasn't already flashing in neon 5m high, how New Zealand miss Shane Bond.
He provides the real edge, and has an astonishing record against Australia. Bond is again recovering from injury. His eyes are on the England series in February-March.
If his time is coming to an end more's the pity. Sir Richard Hadlee, head of the selection team, knows a bit about new-ball bowling. The search for fresh talent must step up.
4. Get more zip into New Zealand's work.
The difference between Australia's fielding, especially within the 30m circle, and New Zealand's was pronounced.
New Zealand hurled themselves about in the field but when Australia's batsmen set off for a sharp single they tended to make it comfortably, which points to their ability to angle the shot and take the pace off the ball. New Zealand found the fielder rather than the gap, plus when they did take the quick single too often it became a scramble.
Also rotating the strike needs smartening up. In Adelaide and Hobart the innings got jammed by the inability to tick the board over.
5. Tidy up the off-field stuff.
The kerfuffle over Shaun Tait's action and the Adam Gilchrist absence from Hobart could have been managed better.
If New Zealand had a beef with Tait's slingy action they should have declared their hand; if they didn't, they should have said so. And coach John Bracewell should have kept his ideas on Gilchrist to himself.
