Apart from some showers being predicted tomorrow, the weather in the Bay of Plenty looks fine right through until around Saturday.

The MetService's five day forecast is predicting fine weather with warm westerly winds for today, cloudy periods with a few showers in the afternoon tomorrow, and fine conditions with light winds on Christmas Eve.

A mainly fine week is being forecast for the Bay of Plenty. Image: MetService.

Christmas Day is looking pretty much the same, with fine weather, light winds and afternoon sea breezes.

Strong temperature contrasts mark the run-in to Christmas, with warm northwesterlies bringing hot temperatures early in the week ahead of an approaching front.

Behind the front, a southerly change could knock as much as 10 degrees off temperatures as it crosses the South Island on today, although temperature changes will be less as the southerly change passes over the North Island on Wednesday, says a statement from the MetService.

'After this, a developing ridge heralds more settled conditions over the Christmas break and temperatures climb again, although they won't reach the same heights as earlier this week straight away.

'On Christmas Day, Auckland and Christchurch should reach the low 20s, while Wellington and Dunedin hit the high teens. By Boxing Day Central Otago, Marlborough and inland Canterbury look likely to bask in the heat again.

'On Christmas morning, any lingering cloud should break up with the heat of the day revealing blue skies in most places.”

Boxing Day looks to be a stunner of a day, with clear skies and just a slim chance of a shower for inland parts of the South Island.

Looking further ahead, the high should stick around with fine weather persisting for several days into early next week.