The triumphant New Zealand Olympians have arrived to a crowd of hundreds of fans at the Auckland International Airport.
The athletes showed off their haul to the cheering crowd before heading to the official welcome ceremony in downtown Auckland.
Gold medal kayaker Lisa Carrington says it's fantastic to be home.
"It's amazing to have that support, it's so cool, we'd been told a lot that everyone was behind us."
Olympian Peter Burling's mum says the next week will be busy for the boys, as they prepare to go to France for Team New Zealand in ten days' time.
Sailing gold medalist Burling says they felt the country were behind them the whole way.
"We’re a really tight team and we're super excited about what we managed to achieve. The support's overwhelming, and we couldn't have done it without it."
Anticipation had been building before the team landed, about one hour later than expected, on its return from Rio.
They have brought with them 18 medals - five more than their previous best Olympics haul.
Newshub.
