It's boom time for Tauranga

The beach was the place to be.

Tourism operators experienced a bumper long weekend break with leisure hotspots packed to capacity across the Bay.

Perfect weather, a full events calendar and the long weekend have left local businesses full of hope for summer, which some are predicting could be the busiest in five years.

Most caravan parks and camping grounds were booked out at the weekend while Bayfair, local cinemas and restaurants attracted huge crowd numbers.

Events including the Tauranga Arts Festival, Wheels on Mainstreet and the Bay Salsa Festival brought people from right across the North Island to town.

Wesley, 9 and Riley Heta, 4, left Hamilton for a day at the beach, joining the thousands who flocked to the Bay for Labour Weekend.

Gail Fagan, the Motel Association of New Zealand Tauranga president said all 35 of the local members businesses were booked solid on Saturday night.

"You could not have got a room in the Mount or Tauranga on Saturday night, as far as the Motel Association goes.

"And it was pretty much the same on Sunday night too. There are a lot of happy motel owners in the area at the moment."

Mrs Fagan said summer was also looking good with a lot of forward booking compared to previous years.

"At the Bay Palm Motel, we have been booked solid for New Years Eve since June.

"Normally we have a few rooms up until October or November but this year it is filling up fast and a lot of motels are reporting a similar situation."

Tauranga restaurateur Luigi Barattieri, who owns Comida, Volare and Spuntino, said the Tauranga Arts Festival and Little Big markets boosted numbers in his eateries.

"It was a good weekend for sure," he said.

"Comida sits next to the Crystal Palace, so that was great we got a lot of people coming for a drink before shows and after for desserts.

"The other restaurants were also very good, very busy.

"Every Labour Weekend it is like a light switched on but for a few years now it has not been so, it quietens down until late November again.

"This year feels good, you never really know but I am hopeful of a really good summer ahead."

Surfers reported seeing dolphins near the Mount on Sunday, meanwhile a pod of orca were spotted in the Tauranga Marina, where a group of people were attempting a world record dive bomb.

Fishermen experienced a good weekend, with a number of large kingfish caught just off Omokoroa, meanwhile surf lifesavers had a quiet start to the summer, with no rescues reported when the Bay of Plenty Times went to print.

Omanu surf lifesaver Haven Bellamy said it had been a great weekend, with hundreds enjoying the beach.

"We didn't have any rescues or extreme weather and there were no rips our way either," he said. "The weather was perfect and we had hundreds of people down here."

A spokesman for the Tauranga Coastguard said a group of people on board a 30 foot catamaran put out a mayday call after their boat lost its mast near Motiti Island yesterday. Aside from that, however, the weekend was pretty uneventful in terms of water emergencies.

He said the group was helped back to shore by members of the public.

"We had to go out and help a family of six in a jet boat near Motuhoa Island on Saturday.

"They ran over their ski rope and it got sucked into the engine so Coast guard towed them back to the Te Puna estuary," he said.

"For the number of boats out it was pretty quiet, quite non eventful - I'd say people were reasonably well prepared," he said.