Kernaghan (61) was well beaten in the pairs and fours in the first two sessions of the first test on the Queensland Gold Coast but came back strongly in the third session and narrowly lost the pairs with Shannon McIlroy, 17-16.
There were seven players in the Black Jacks men's team and the selectors adopted a rotation system. Kernaghan sat out the second test.
He displayed his best form when he came back for the third test on Friday and skipped the pair with Mike Nagy as lead. They narrowly lost the first game 17-15 but came back in the final game to draw 17-17.
He also skipped the winning four in the final test when Australia was beaten 15-12.
Kernaghan ended the test series with one win, a draw and four losses from his six games. Nagy also had one win and a draw.
The best-performed New Zealand male bowler was Shannon McIlroy who won four of his singles games.
The only other New Zealand men to win games were Tony Grantham and former Dunedin bowler Paul Girdler who were in Kernaghan's winning fours team.
Dunedin's Sarah Scott and Gore's Sheldon Bagrie-Howley were members of the New Zealand Development team. They both won four of their nine games.
Scott was skip of the New Zealand women's team and her best win was in the first test when the triples team won 28-11. Her team also lost two close games.
Bagrie-Howley, a member of the Dunedin PBA, showed a mature temperament when he won two close games 21-20 in the third test.
The other Otago member of the New Zealand team was Dunedin's Carolyn Crawford who won three and drew one of her nine games in the Para-Sport events.
