The pool
A tidal-fed saltwater swimming hole on Tasman Bay, the gateway to Abel Tasman National Park.
The Motueka Saltwater Baths have been a fixture of the Tasman district since the 1930s — a simple concrete enclosure on the foreshore that fills and refreshes with each high tide. Locals come at all hours; in summer the lawns above the baths fill with families and picnic blankets.
The water is the Tasman Sea itself, cool and clean, with views across the bay to the gold-sand beaches of the Abel Tasman. It is the kind of unpretentious community pool that has all but disappeared elsewhere — and is all the more loved for it.
