Get out your red togs, the Hoff is in town

TV legend David Hasselhoff will be coming to Tauranga in early January. Photo / Supplied

Break out the budgie smugglers and binoculars: David Hasselhoff is coming to New Zealand.

"The Hoff", 58, will greet Bay of Plenty holidaymakers on the beach on January 6 as part of a whistlestop promotional tour.

It is thought to be the first time the former Baywatch and Knight Rider star, who has recently reinvented himself as a reality TV judge, has been to New Zealand.

The Hoff posted news of his trip on Twitter, writing: "Exciting news ... Hoff To Australia very soon!!! DH x."

He added: "I may also be coming to New Zealand ..."

Hasselhoff is understood to have been paid a substantial fee for the trip down under by Streets Ice Cream, which is launching a new range of ice blocks called Splice Real Fruits.

Hasselhoff will make a "grand appearance" at a popular Tauranga beach - but no word yet if he will be wearing the famous red swimming trunks.

Since appearing on TV screens playing Michael Knight in the cult 1980s classic Knight Rider, Hasselhoff has been a figure of both adulation and ridicule - and he has embraced them both.

He played lifeguard Mitch Buchannon in the 1990s worldwide phenomenon Baywatch, has a cult following in Germany for his pop career, and has appeared in pantomines in London.

But in 2007 his daughter posted a YouTube clip showing a drunken Hasselhoff eating a cheeseburger off his kitchen floor.

In true Hoff fashion, he bounced back to become a host on reality TV show America's Got Talent.