It's an early start to the weekend festivities as Auckland gets ready to welcome the Volvo yachts.

A few hundred people are basking in the morning sun at the Auckland Stopover Village for its official opening.

John Key and Len Brown are kicking off the festivities, opening the stopover village.

The six yachts remaining from the original seven, are on their way from Sanya in China.

They leave for Brazil on March 15.

However, the pleasant weather is just a little too calm for the Volvo Ocean Race yachts struggling to get enough wind to make into Auckland harbour on schedule.

The six teams still racing, are nearing the end of leg four of the race, after leaving the Chinese port of Sanya, 20 days ago.

They were expected to make into port early tomorrow afternoon, but the light winds have pushed the arrival time to sometime after eight tomorrow evening.

They'll start the fifth leg of their race on March 15th when they set off for the Brazilian port of Itajai.