It wasn't the most spectacular goal that Charlotte Harrison has scored, but for drama and significance, it was hard to beat.

The last-minute tap-in from centimetres out against South Korea in Amsterdam this week carried the New Zealand women's hockey team to its best finish in a major tournament.

Their achievement at the Champions Trophy was visible in the bronze medals the players wore as the bulk of the squad arrived back in Auckland today.

With the clock counting down in the playoff against the Koreans, Harrison was in the right spot to provide the decisive touch.

A Cathryn Finlayson shot had looked to be rolling into an empty goal before Harrison made sure by helping the ball over the line for a 3-2 victory.

"It was dribbling over and I gave it a little tap-in," the Northland striker said.

"I poached it a bit, I think, but I wasn't going to take any risks."

The result marked the first time the New Zealand women had finished one of the big three tournaments -- the Olympics, the World Cup or the Champions Trophy -- on the podium.

It also lifted their ranking up a place to sixth, ahead of arch rivals Australia, who dropped to seventh after a campaign that included defeat to the Black Sticks in the pool stages.

For Harrison, it topped the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games last October, when Australia won a penalty shoot-out in the final to snatch gold.

"Silver in Delhi was definitely a high achievement for us, but losing your last match is quite hard," she said.

"The Champions Trophy was a buzz for us. We won our last game. We ended on a high."

With the top eight nations represented, the field in the Dutch capital was also significantly stronger than in India.

Harrison and Katie Glynn were the Black Sticks' top scorers at the event with three goals.

She and Glynn also became New Zealand's all-time top scorers in the Champions Trophy with five each.

At just 21, Harrison is already an experienced campaigner, with more than a century of caps.

Younger sister Samantha, 19, passed the 50-test mark during the tournament.

Harrison said the bronze medal had given the Black Sticks a boost in confidence as they and coach Mark Hager looked ahead to the London Olympic Games next year.

There is a tour of United States to come before the Oceania Olympic qualifying tournament in October and Harrison said a key area for fine-tuning was maintaining team structure.

"Mark puts some amazing game plans out there and if we have the discipline to stick to them, we pretty much can't go wrong," she said.

"We just have to make sure we're playing as a unit."

Hager is in his third year with the Black Sticks and Harrison said he had brought a more attack-minded philosophy.

"In the past we've probably beeen a little bit cautious about going forward at times," she said.

"We are just so much more aggressive now."

Harrison put that down to Hager's own prowess as a goalscorer in his playing career.

An Australian skipper and Olympic bronze medallist, Hager had an impressive strike rate of 179 goals in 231 internationals.

"He loved to score goals and he scored a lot of them," Harrison said.

"That's what he's trying to go, get us getting goals, and if you want to do that, you have to attack."