Speaking as a NZer who's parents have a flag flying high outside their house (rural, with B&B), I disagree. My parents love countries where the flag is flown proudly - Canada being a great example where it's everywhere to be seen, Bhutan even more so. But my parents don't feel the same, mostly because they don't feel particularly patriotic about the current Kiwi flag. They partly fly it because they wish there was some sort of patriotism associated with it and they feel that flying it might help that, but partly just because it helps guests find their house when they're staying at the B&B.

Given the NZ flag's Union Jack and very close resemblance to the Australian flag I can understand why people don't feel too strongly about the current state of affairs. There's nothing evocative, nothing that feels distinctive to NZ. How many NZ flags do you see being waved at sporting events compared to silver ferns and the like? Almost none. Based on that alone I think it's high time we shrugged off the flag's colonial roots and changed it to something that's uniquely NZ. It might take a while for people to adjust to the change (after all, people generally don't like change), but in the long run people will support it just because it's truly ours.