New Zealand scored 13 unanswered second-half points to beat an improved England side 19-6 at Twickenham on Saturday.
The home team mostly matched the visitors and trailed by just three points until All Blacks scrumhalf Jimmy Cowan touched down in the 57th minute.
Flyhalf Dan Carter converted for two of the 14 points that took him ahead of Andrew Mehrtens as New Zealand's all-time leading scorer, and he completed the scoring with a late penalty.
"We were happy to get the win here at Twickenham and it's never easy," Carter said. "We'll take that but work on the errors during the week."
Jonny Wilkinson scored two penalties for England, which competed well but was still short of inspiration in midfield.
England has now completed its November test schedule, but New Zealand faces France next weekend before rounding off its European tour with a match against the Barbarians.
Having already beaten Wales and Italy, New Zealand has won three games without conceding a try.
"Defensively, we're very sound," Carter said. "It's something to be proud of for the boys."
For three quarters of the game, the All Blacks mostly played narrow and struggled to find a way through a quick-tackling home defense.
But the forwards worked away as England's had, working the ball out to Sitiveni Sivivatu on the left. The winger slipped the ball in the tackle to captain Richie McCaw, who offloaded for Cowan to score his third try in 32 tests.
New Zealand looked dangerous whenever it took the ball out wide at pace but England persisted in its high-energy harrying and crunching forward play despite visibly tiring, and only a last-ditch tackle by Carter stopped Tom Croft from scoring a try for England with seven minutes left.
"We thought the guys played the best game on tour, so we're delighted with that," New Zealand coach Graham Henry said. "You're always disappointed when you don't finish off more chances, but we played some quality rugby."
England rarely threatened an upset victory but at least roused the crowd after the jeers that greeted its sluggish 16-9 win over Argentina last week.
It put together more enterprising rugby in the first 20 minutes than it managed in the whole of its previous matches against Australia and the Pumas, kicking selectively rather than compulsively and retaining the ball in contact far more.
But it still conceded some needless penalties and made basic handling errors and only Carter's wayward kicking let the home side go in at the break level at 6-6.
Although he overtook Mehrtens' 967 points with a 25th-minute penalty, Carter missed two of his four first-half kicks and surprisingly failed to target wingers Ugo Monye and Matt Banahan with high balls.
Mark Cueto at fullback dealt well with every high kick that came his way and Wilkinson kept England level.
"No one made breaks in midfield today," England team manager Martin Johnson said. "Midfield is an area that's very congested and there's a lot of very powerful players.
"Creativity does not jump out and give you breaks in midfield. Both sides had opportunities today and didn't take them."
Ugo Monye thought he had scored a 12th-minute try for England after he stole a sloppy pass near the All Blacks' line, but he was called back by referee Jonathan Kaplan for knocking on in the tackle.
Wilkinson, three places above Carter at No. 1 in the international scoring charts, put the home side ahead in the 16th when Richie McCaw was penalized for offside.
The All Blacks then looked to have touched down in the corner through Mils Muliaina after Carter had slipped a tackle to draw in opponents and create the space.
The television official ruled that Monye's tackle had just put the fullback into touch in the left-hand corner.
But England prop Tim Payne was then penalized for hitting an opponent on the ground and Carter converted the resulting penalty from near the right-hand touchline to overtake Andrew Mehrtens' five-year-old All Blacks record tally.
Wilkinson and Carter traded kicks before the New Zealand flyhalf missed another effort before the break.
Carter finally put New Zealand ahead seven minutes after the interval with a third penalty and Cowan's converted try stretched the lead.
Carter's late penalty in front of the posts put the game well beyond England and he confirmed that fact when he outpaced Croft to bring down the replacement flanker just short of the line.
AP