Smith's flight to Auckland Airport from Santiago, Chile, landed at 4am.
He was escorted from the plane and cleared through customs with police and was then transferred to a police prison van which took him to Auckland Prison in Paremoremo.
Most passengers on the LAN flight from Santiago this morning had no idea they were sharing a cabin with a murderer who fled New Zealand.
Kiwi couple Simon and Jie Crosby had followed the news of Smith's escape before they left for their holiday in Brazil.
Mrs Crosby saw Smith being escorted off the flight by four or five police officers. "He had his wrists together and a jacket covering them and two police officers either side of him," she said.
Mr Crosby said Smith had looked "upset".
The couple said they had no idea Smith had been on their flight. "We thought he'd have been deported before we arrived [in Rio]," Mr Crosby said.
Another New Zealander returning from a holiday in South America said she wasn't bothered by the fact Smith had been on her flight. "They've got to bring him back somehow. I'm just glad I didn't have to sit next to him."
Another returning passenger said it was a shock to hear that a murderer had been on the plane.
Smith was escorted from Brazil to Auckland by three New Zealand Police officers.
Footage captured shortly before he boarded a plane at Rio de Janeiro Airport shows Smith grinning at a camera while pulling a peace sign, followed quickly by his middle finger.
Smith was caught in Rio de Janeiro on November 13 a week after fleeing New Zealand while on temporary release from Spring Hill Corrections Facility in South Auckland. He was serving a life sentence for murder and other violent crimes.
Smith's lawyer said yesterday he believed it was not in the public interest to charge his client for escaping custody.
Tony Ellis, who has acted for Smith in the past and received a call from him when he fled the country while on temporary release, said he expected Smith to call him after he arrived back in the country early today.
He said he thought Smith would be feeling "rather low" about his return.
"I would imagine that having successfully escaped and then being captured and then, worse still, being brought back to New Zealand, he could be in quite a poor state."
He said if police were to charge him with escaping custody he could be taken to court this morning. But laying a new charge wouldn't have any effect on Smith's punishment. He is serving a life sentence for murder and child sex offences.
"The only real effect of charging him would be there's a public trial and then he gets five years' imprisonment, which effectively just means he can't apply for parole for the next five years, but there's not a parole board in the country that would let him out anyway. It's a waste of time," Dr Ellis said.
He believed Smith could realistically be spending life behind bars, and a trial for escaping custody wouldn't change that.
"On a straightforward, rational basis, I don't think it is in the public interest."
