Second priority is avenging the loss to New Zealand in last year's World Cup quarter-final in Dhaka.
South Africa choked again on the game's biggest limited overs stage. They lost six wickets for 38 in 13.3 overs after cruising at 108 for two in the 25th chasing 222 to win.
South Africa's only international one-day silverware since rejoining cricket post-apartheid is the 1998 KnockOut Trophy and, for those of a generous mind, Commonwealth Games gold in Kuala Lumpur the same year.
Kallis says addressing such matters is critical: "I still love what I do and want a test series victory but I know New Zealand can be tough work. We've got to embrace touring the country because it's always struck me as a sports-crazy place. This tour is a benchmark in a tough year before we go up against England.
"We've played some good test cricket of late. Confidence is up but we haven't always put the nail in as much as we would like. In one-dayers, the World Cup quarter-final was an example of needing to improve. We felt in control most of that game but didn't seize our chance."
It's not all gloom. South Africa and Kallis have achieved plenty of success together. The only top eight team South Africa has not beaten in an away series with Kallis in the ranks is Sri Lanka. Coincidentally, Kallis has scored a century at home against each of those top eight countries; Sri Lanka remains the only blip playing away.
He gets a chance to right that if he remains in South Africa's test ranks until July next year when they tour Sri Lanka.
Individually his 41 test centuries place him second equal on the all-time list with Ricky Ponting and behind Sachin Tendulkar (51). \
He is fourth on the list of most test runs (12,260). Marry that with the fact his average of 57.02 is the highest of any current player who has played a minimum of 20 innings and you have quite a batsman.
Then there are his feats with the ball.
Combined with his batting those statistics effectively place him in a genre with West Indian great Sir Garfield Sobers whose batting average shades Kallis at 57.78. Sobers took 235 wickets at 34.03 with 109 catches from 93 tests; Kallis has 274 wickets at 32.51 with 180 catches from 150 tests.
SO FANS will be witnessing one of test cricket's greats on what presumably will be his final New Zealand tour. If past evidence is an indication, Kallis won't disappoint. When South Africa won the 1998-99 series, he averaged 58.66; when they drew the 2003-04 series it was 70.80. In 14 tests against New Zealand he averages 67.80, including five centuries.
A highlight for Kallis in recent months has been the replenishment of South Africa's bowling stocks. They have rarely been weak in the last generation but Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel have merged well with Kallis the all-rounder.
"The bowling has become a strength of late," Kallis says. "I don't have to do as much and can concentrate on my batting. We're bowling in partnerships, complementing each other by taking vital wickets at vital times and generating plenty of pace and bounce.
Take the Newlands test against Australia. That was a crazy game but it was fantastic to come back and show what our bowling can do [bowling Australia out in their second innings for 47]."
Gary Kirsten's appointment as coach after winning the World Cup with India has also buoyed spirits. Incidentally, Kirsten's last test tour was to New Zealand in 2004 with the likes of Kallis, Graeme Smith, Mark Boucher and Jacques Rudolph in the ranks.
"Gary has been fantastic so far," Kallis says. "He played fairly recently so he knows the modern game and what it takes to succeed. It's not so much his coaching but his man management that has shone."
Cricket remains Kallis' passion but he is now doing more outside the game, setting up the Jacques Kallis Scholarship Foundation in 2006 as part of his benefit year. The aim is to sponsor scholars from various backgrounds who show promise in cricket.
The foundation offers cricket mentoring as well as paying for tuition, board and living expenses at four top South African high schools: Wynberg Boys High School (Kallis' alma mater where the Oval is named after him), Pretoria Boys High School, Maritzburg College and Selborne College.
"It puts kids into schools which they normally couldn't afford. Hopefully a few will end up playing for their provinces and setting good cricketing standards."
