It's been five months, but Blair Tuke is finally back on home soil.
Tuke sailed into Auckland's Hauraki Gulf overnight to complete the gruelling sixth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race - a 10,200km trek starting in Hong Kong - with his team, Spanish entry Mapfre, claiming third.
The Kiwi sailor said he was just happy to be home.
"It's a pretty amazing feeling," he said.
"It started seeing the Three Kings right at the sunrise this morning, down the Northland coast... really proud to be a Kiwi."
Despite the long journey the race came down to the wire in the early hours of this morning, with five of the six entries all finishing inside the space of 28 minutes.
The close finish was made possible after a ridge of high pressure off the north east coast stalled the progress of the leading boats, allowing those behind to close what was previously viewed as an insurmountable gap.
But the buffer Team AkzoNobel and Scallywag had built in the last week proved to be enough as they remained ahead of the pack for a duel at the finish.
Team AkzoNobel stunned the pack crossing the line first in an official time of 20 days, 9 hours, 17 minutes and 26 seconds - just two minutes ahead of Scallywag.
Tuke and Mapfre crossed the line third 20 minutes later to claim the last spot on the podium but more importantly maintaining a five point lead over Dongfeng on the overall scoreboard for the global race.
Fellow Kiwi sailor Peter Burling was last to arrive in Auckland overnight after his crew's bold tactical move backfired and left them stranded well behind the pack.
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