It's ‘business as usual' again at the Port of Tauranga after some work on the wharves was paused to allow for a full assessment of the morning's tsunami threat.

At the port, the tanker Torea was unloading petrol at the cement/tanker berth and was requested to disconnect its discharge hose during the tsunami alert period.

The container crane operations at the Sulphur Point terminal were also stopped for a while as a safety precaution.

Ships in port were advised to tighten their lines.

These advisories have passed and full port work has resumed.

In the upper harbour, Tauranga Bridge Marina manager Tony Arnold said the tide had been coming in a little quicker this morning.

'We've been watching currents,” says Tony.

'It's slack water now in the harbour and it's still coming in. It sped up earlier – I just noticed it was coming in quicker than usual but nothing huge.”

High tide at Tauranga was at 11.40am and at 11.45am the tide was still coming in at 1.8 knots according to the Port of Tauranga's harbour conditions webpage.

High tide this morning was expected to be 1.8m. At noon it was 1.95m with the tide still incoming at 1.1kts.

At 12.05pm there was a brief surge to 1.3 knots, bringing the tide level to 1.97m.

The PTL harbour conditions page can be accessed by clicking on Weather and Tides on the SunLive homepage.

The tsunami threat to New Zealand followed the 7.8 magnitude submarine earthquake near the Kermadecs at 7.03am.

Tsunami warnings were issued for the east coast of the North Island, but were lifted by Civil Defence at about 9am.

This came one hour after a cancellation by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre at about 8am.

A warning does remain for people getting into coastal waters or using small boats there as tidal surges and strong currents are expected to persist for the rest of the day.

Following the Japan earthquake in March Tauranga harbour experienced tidal surges for days afterwards.