England made a wretched start to their unrealistic chase of 658 to win the third test on Monday after a Kane Williamson century rammed home New Zealand's advantage.
The tourists were 18-2 after openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley were both removed in the six overs bowled before stumps on day three in Hamilton.
It left New Zealand, dismissed late in the day for 453, needing eight more wickets to secure a consolation victory after England easily won the first two tests.
It may only be seven wickets required, with doubt over whether the injured Ben Stokes will bat.
The England captain is being assessed for a hamstring injury suffered while bowling which forced him to hobble immediately from the field.
Any prospect of England reaching what would be a world record fourth-innings score were quickly quashed when Duckett charged down the pitch and played on for four.
It handed a first wicket of the match to seamer Tim Southee, playing his 107th and final test before retiring.
Crawley was trapped lbw for five to complete a miserable series in which he fell to paceman Matt Henry in all six of his innings, totalling just 52 runs in the process.
Jacob Bethell was at the crease on nine and Joe Root was yet to score.
Earlier, rain wiped out the entire first session at Seddon Park but it didn't prevent Williamson advancing from his overnight 50 to a 33rd test ton before departing for 156 soon after tea.
He put on 105 for the third wicket alongside Rachin Ravindra, who was caught for 44 off a leading edge from seamer Matthew Potts.
Williamson departed when top-edging a sweep into the deep off Shoaib Bashir (2-170).
New Zealand's greatest run-scorer struck 20 fours and one six as he took his career tally of test runs at Seddon Park to 1 614, the most by any batter at any New Zealand venue.
He has scored centuries in five successive tests at what is his domestic home ground for Northern Districts, where he boasts an average of 94.94 from 21 innings.
Williamson survived a tight Brydon Carse lbw appeal review on 73 and was later dropped by wicketkeeper Ollie Pope, when a difficult leg-side chance spilt from his glove off Stokes.
Daryl Mitchell was caught in the deep for 60 to hand part-time spinner Bethell a first test wicket and, ultimately, England's best bowling figures for the innings of 3-72.
Mitchell Santner also holed out off Root on 49 to fall just short of back-to-back half-centuries for the match.
Southee scored two in his last test knock, failing to add to his career tally of 98 test sixes and leaving him ranked fourth on the all-time list.
NEW ZEALAND: Tom Latham (capt), Will Young, Kane Williamson, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Tim Southee, Will O'Rourke.
ENGLAND: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ollie Pope, Ben Stokes (capt), Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Matthew Potts, Shoaib Bashir.