Boating conditions are less than ideal at the moment and the Coastguard is reporting people are taking the sensible option of staying ashore.

The wind is sitting at 22 knots Tuesday morning creating 2.5metre waves out from Tauranga harbour.

Tauranga Volunteer Coastguard operations manager Simon Barker says it is not very pleasant conditions.

'There are better things to do than go out on the water.

'It's a good day to go shopping.”

Simon says boaties have stayed off the water since the weather turned nasty.

'There are pretty strong northweastelies at the moment and there is nothing out on the water at the moment.”

The Coastguard only had one call out between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day to a boat that had broken down.

'People have been pretty sensible so far.”

Simon says they had about three times as many boats on the water over those three days.

'It will be getting busier over the next few days.

'Once the weather passes we expect to see a lot more people out.”