It allowed the Socceroos to retain the Soccer Ashes 4-1 on aggregate following their narrow win in the opening game in Canberra.
The All Whites finally grabbed a goal - their first against their rivals in 15 years - and they again played plenty of enterprising football.
But they struggled to turn dominance into goals, and they paid the price for some bad lapses in defence in a crucial period in the second half during which African-born youngsters Nestory Irankunda and Mohamed Toure made hay for the Australians.
All Whites coach Darren Bazeley made two changes from the opening game of the series, replacing Michael Boxall with Finn Surman to join Tyler Bindon in an extremely youthful central defensive partnership, and starting Ben Old on the left wing in place of Callum McCowatt.
Tony Popovic rang the changes - six in all - for the Socceroos as he rewarded game one heroes like Irankunda, Toure and Max Balard.
The game two script was initially a carbon copy of the first.
The All Whites started with confidence and fluency in front of 18,213 fans, moving the ball around at pace and finding plenty of half-openings.
Bindon made a delightful move at the back then passed long for Chris Wood, but Socceroos goalie Paul Izzo was alert and on to it.
Eli Just got himself into a good position but could not get the final touch, and Australia looked rattled as the left-sided combination of Old and Francis de Vries looked particularly potent.
The Australians looked rattled, the All Whites looked utterly composed - naturally, then, the game lurched the other way.
New Zealand keeper Max Crocombe came up with a world-class save when Kyle Rowles climbed high for a powerful header that looked certain to find the net.
But a minute later, Crocombe was powerless to stop Toure, who shrugged off Bindon and buried a low shot for his debut international goal and what, frankly, was an undeserved 1-0 lead.
An All Whites equaliser looked certain six minutes before halftime when Sarpreet Singh made a delightful spin and sent in a cross.
The Australian defence nearly coughed up an own goal, but the ball hit the cross bar. And Tim Payne nearly followed up, but his header was smartly tipped over by Izzo.
Nearly, nearly, nearly - so often the story for these All Whites, who play such good football but must find a way to be more clinical.
Ryan Thomas had a booming volley saved shortly after the break but the Australians jumped to 2-0 when young star Irankunda dribbled, held off a defender and finished from a sharp angle.
That was majorly deflating, but what followed was much nicer.
Wood was the man, of course, and while his first touch was poor, he showed football smarts to follow up and slot it past Izzo.
It was a first goal for New Zealand in a transtasman game since May 2010.
Just a shame it was immediately followed by Toure scoring his second goal, and while a three-goal burst in the space of six minutes was entertaining, it left the home fans feeling a bit sour.
There was then a let-off for the All Whites as Toure appeared to complete a hat-trick but his goal was chalked off by VAR for offside.
Another lucky break followed when Bindon was shown red for a tackle on Irankunda but VAR suggested referee Don Robertson take another look, and it was downgraded to yellow.
Irankunda hit the crossbar from a sensational long-range free kick but there were few other openings as the game fizzled out.
The dream for the All Whites was to beat Australia for the first time in 23 years.
The reality is they will not be able to achieve really great things until they can find a scoring touch to go with their pretty football.
Soccer Ashes
The scores
Australia 3
Mohamed Toure 34’, 60’, Nestory Irankunda 54’
New Zealand 1
Chris Wood 57’
Halftime: Australia 1-0.
