I just saw the finalist designs, and I can't say I like any of them, because they don't speak to me in a way that tells me in one second what New Zealand is all about. In my mind, a country's flag should tell non-native people what the country is like. The Canadian flag, for instance, incorporates the maple leaf, a national symbol for Canada that has existed for a long time, even pre-Confederation. The white background tells people Canada is a winter country, and the two red bands on either side say that Canada has two coastlines. Put more simply, 'Here be the vast land of snows and maple trees in between two coasts', hahaha.
A mostly black, or all-black flag strikes me as a bit strange and unattractive, but that's just me.
The 'Black Jack' design with a stylized Union Jack doesn't do it either. It just doesn't look right. Although I do think the designer cleverly incorporated Maori stylings into the Union Jack, to communicate the idea that New Zealand's history as a country really began when the British explorers first encountered the Maori.
I'm not a Kiwi, but if I was, I would go with something like the following design. A stretched Union Jack at the top, like the flag of Alberta, and below a blue background with the Southern Cross in the lower right hand corner, and a stylized fern in the lower left hand corner. In the middle, you could have some sort of Maori emblem. Both the stars and the fern would be in white. The Union Jack, obviously, would point to New Zealand's British heritage, while the blue background points to the country's status as a maritime nation. The fern would represent the ferns that grow all over New Zealand, and like Canada's maple leaf, are a widely recognized symbol of the country. The Maori design in the middle would represent the Maori heritage, obviously.
Just my $0.02 (really $0.01 if you account for inflation and the recent change in the USD - CAD exchange rate).
