Gold Coast United striker Shane Smeltz is still coming to terms with New Zealand's World Cup qualification.

The star goalscorer for both club and country, Smeltz was still beaming after the All Whites overcame Bahrain in Wellington on Saturday night to progress to the World Cup finals for just the second time in their history and said it may take some time for his emotions to calm down.

"It was similar (to Australia's 2006 quest), the whole country was over the moon that we managed to get through and the feeling of having actually qualified for the World Cup is hard to describe or put into words," he said.

"It's a massive achievement that hasn't really fully sunk in yet. A few days have passed since the game itself and we've had that time to think about it, but I guess it will be on our minds for quite a while yet.

"The excitement we all felt was unbelievable so I can only imagine what it will be like leading up to the tournament itself.

"Bahrain have been in that situation before and they were as desperate as we were to get through. But we were on our home turf with a massive crowd behind us and the whole country was supporting us; the place was buzzing.

"We are just grateful that we got the right result because it's huge for football in New Zealand."

Like many New Zealanders and Australians, Smeltz would love it if the two nations were drawn together in their group in the finals in South Africa.

"We were having a bit of a laugh about that at training this morning. It would be a good match wouldn't it?" he added.

"I wouldn't mind being in the same group as Australia to be honest," he smiled.