With some help from Spinoff readers, a compilation of the best outdoor pools this country has to offer.
How do you know it’s summer? Some people go by the start of daylight saving; others the less reliable gauge of temperature. But maybe the best indication is the opening of outdoor summer pools, which spreads through the country as the days get longer. For some communities, like Geraldine, outdoor pools are the only ones available. In others, outdoor pools exist as part of bigger pool complexes, just one of many swimming options.
Whatever the configuration, outdoor pools are a summer staple in New Zealand. We asked both staff and Spinoff readers to argue for their favourites, and have ordered them from south to north.
St Clair Hot Salt Water Pool, Dunedin
I know I’m not alone in my love for the wild open ocean. But for a proper swim, most of us need water that is not too cold, not too choppy, and preferably without rips. So it happened that the first iteration of the St Clair salt water pool was constructed in the 1880s, simply by enlarging a natural depression in the rocks. Subsequent developments have made it more resemblant of a regular lane pool than a rockpool: boxed in, artificially heated to 28°C and over-concentrated with the human species. But still… at high tide, sea spray breaks over the wall and peppers the pool surface. Sand forms small heaps at the deep end. Fragments of seaweed waft midway down the water column, and gulls pass overhead.
It’s an elemental experience. The pool has many moods. Blue sky, sun high: I’m overwhelmed by the brightness bombarding me from every tile. A fur seal basks on the rocks beyond the concrete wall. People are basking too, strewn on towels across the terrace. Windy and cold: I get goosebumps immediately when I emerge for a drink, and hurry to re-immerse myself in the blanket of warmth. Calm and overcast: the pool is disturbed only by the ripples I make. I enter a flow state and lose count of laps. Salt, sweat, sunscreen, seaweed, sand… all these mingle in the St Clair salt water pool. Yet I somehow always come away feeling fresh. Taut. Alive. /Kate Bonné
War Memorial Baths, Millers Flat
You’ve got to hand it to the pragmatic types that populate this (previously small and now tiny) Central Otago township. A War Memorial that is visited every day in summer and used by swathes of the community, from older people quietly doing lengths in the early morning; kids from the school across the road getting lessons; families after school; people on long drives to Wānaka needing the kids in the back to calm down and anyone else needing to cool off after a hot summer day.
A combo of solar panel and local coal means it’s always a steady temperature (this is relatively recent; the heating was entirely via the sun when I was a kid at the local school and it was only truly warm at the end of summer). In mid autumn it would get drained for the winter; sometimes there’d be a frog or a pair of knickers left behind.
It’s a fantastic facility and I hope the locals can keep maintaining it. There’s no way the school could afford a pool of their own, and if the pool weren’t there it would be sorely missed by many. The Clutha River is not exactly safe for kids to swim in! / Alan MacDougall
Geraldine Summer Pool, Geraldine
Geraldine is mainly known (to people who don’t live there) as a sort of giant, permanent farmers market, where there are many interesting and fancy things to try (the Barkers of Geraldine shop, yes, but there are also some great random samples of beeswax lipstick and stuff at the pharmacy and a cheese shop!). If you find yourself in South Canterbury in the summertime, it’s worth abandoning the pleasures of eating small pieces of cheese on toothpicks to go to the 25-metre pool. It’s very shallow but nonetheless ideal for swimming races followed by eating bread and chutney on the grass. / Shanti Mathias
Waltham Pool, Christchurch
Close to the Heathcote/Ōpāwaho River in southern Christchurch, Waltham Pool doesn’t look like much more than a squat concrete building and a single waterslide from the outside. But enter the pool (from Waltham Park, which is naturally on Waltham Road) and it’s a pool you could spend a whole day at. There is grass to lie and read your book on (as well as some trees and sun loungers). There’s a shallow paddling pool, then the main pool slowly gets deeper before the lane separators. That feels like a more accurate reflection of how outdoor pools are actually used: lots of children jumping on top of variously shaped foam objects, with lanes an extra bonus for the grown ups. / SM
Blackball Pool, Blackball
The Blackball pool is a beloved feature of this small West Coast community, described by Lynne McKenzie as “our town treasure”. Dug in the 1920s while the local miners were on strike, the pool is now run by the community (rather than the council). Volunteers, particularly Kathryn and Alan Cox, help keep it running, along with support from local businesses. It’s very affordable, with adult entry for $3 and children for $2. “The water is always so clean,” says Spinoff member Sue Green. “Generations of kids learned to swim in it and you have a lovely view of the hills!” adds Jane McGregor. And a festive start of summer bonus: Green says that “on the grand opening day, Santa comes and there’s a free barbecue”.
Motueka Saltwater Baths
Spinoff supporter Liz Barrack likes these tide-fed pools in Motueka, which the local community fundraised for after fears of sharks at the beach in the 1920s. “It’s just lovely for a relaxing dip,” she says. “You get the whole saltwater experience without the jellyfish and sharks. It’s right on the beach front so you can see the ocean and hear the waves lapping. There’s a gradual entrance with shallow steps, and there are great changing rooms and toilets nearby.” She’s taken visiting family members for a swim when they’ve visited from overseas, and it’s always a hit.
Thorndon Pool, Wellington
Thorndon is an inner-city delight. Built in 1924, there are some very nice elements, like tiles listing the depth in feet (three feet at the shallow end, eight feet six inches at the deep end) and brass rails you can grip around the pool. If you lie down on the concrete benches to dry off in the sun, you can’t see many of the buildings that surround this pool, but maybe that’s because of Wellington’s restrictive heritage zoning laws keeping them to a limited number of stories. Regardless, if you manage to visit Thorndon Pools on one of Wellington’s famed good days you can enjoy barbecues, picnic tables and proximity to a bike lane that the neighbouring Thorndon New World didn’t manage to stop. / SM
Wainuiomata Summer Pool, Lower Hutt
Surrounded by bush, this pool is an oasis on one of Wellington’s famously scorching summer days. Four heated pools of varying temperatures, depths and sizes means there’s a dip for every sort of swimmer, but it’s the 80m hydroslide that really makes this setup one of the greatest of all time. The slide wends between the trees like a giant anaconda. Body after body is propelled like a Nerf bullet, crashing into the landing pool at the end. The Wainuiomata Summer Pool is one of Wellington’s most under-sung assets: beautiful, wisely plotted, beloved by locals, to be discovered by everyone else. / Lyric Waiwiri-Smith
McKenzie Baths, Petone
“We have lots of happy family moments at this great little pool,” says Vidya Singh. “It's a perfect place to do some melting pot people spying too, as you see anyone and everyone here, from stately dowagers to teenage fashionistas, to the tiniest of bubbas and everyone in between.” Built in 1933, the pool includes a colourful splash pad where kids can play, and the water is heated.
Greytown Memorial Baths, Greytown
Oh how I long for stinking hot after-school swims at the Greytown Memorial Baths, drying off on the piping hot wooden bleachers and smashing a $1 Moro bar before it completely melted in your hands. Afterwards, you could hang out and gossip on the nearby playground or run around the cricket grounds on Kuratawhiti Street. Full disclosure, I have quite clearly not been to the Memorial Baths since 2005, but my memories from that place remain as vivid as ever. The deep end was terrifying, the concrete changing rooms were chilly. I was of the generation who saw the walls get painted bright yellow with aqua blue waves, a facelift which nabbed the pool a star turn in a soft drink advertisement. The school bully once spat on me from over the fence, but I’d still go back there in a heartbeat. / Alex Casey
Waikanae Pool
What a beauty. Loads of space, loads of natural shade, a short and sharp hydro slide, a main pool which sometimes has inflatable climbing wotsits, shallower options for kids and baskers, occasional avian visitors from the nearby Ngā Manu Nature Reserve. This is the kind of place you want to make a day of, armed with blankets, picnic baskets and copious kai. There are barbecues for hire and, apart from on the busiest days, room for a bit of backyard cricket. / Toby Manhire (winner, Waikanae pool starfish competition for holding breath, many years ago, before that sort of thing was sensibly binned)
Kiwa Pools, Gisborne
Kiwa Pools wins on scenery alone, with a view of the beach and Kaiti Hill in one direction, and the rippling folds of the hills inland of Gisborne in the other. That view has to be earned, though: you have to climb all the steps to the top of the waterslide yourself, and nod to the bored youth checking you have a mat underneath you before you traverse the tunnel. Or maybe you’ll catch a glimpse of the world beyond from one of the dive platforms; on a sunny day, the water always looks stormy from so many people doing bombs and dives into the deep circle of water. Regardless, it’s always a good time – and the pool stays open until the end of April, so you have a few months to enjoy it if you find yourself in sunny Tairāwhiti. /SM
Parnell Baths, Auckland
After a friend’s tiring 13th birthday party at these pools – where another friend got their period for the first time – I wrote them off for years. It wasn’t until moving into the central city in 2021 that I came to my senses and recognised them as a piece of heaven on earth. Parnell Baths were the first saltwater baths in Tāmaki Makaurau, with formal infrastructure constructed first in 1914, and developed into its chic lido complex form (with its large coloured glass mosaic) in the mid 1950s. The pool today is lined with bright plastic loungers in alternating hues: the perfect spot to read or snooze between dips, and enjoy a Calippo, with a constant backdrop of afterwork gossip and manu-related shrieking. It is absolutely stacked throughout the school holidays, but the pool feels particularly deep and cool in February, when the inner-city harbour water is warm, and teeming with sea lice. Lying afloat, Travis Scott blaring from the closest group of 13-year-olds' UE Boom, looking back at the best view of the Sky Tower, with a tino rangatiratanga flag blowing in the breeze high above you... what could be better than that? / Salene Schloffel-Armstrong
Browny’s Pool, Karanga Plaza, Auckland
A brainchild of Auckland mayor Wayne Brown (ostentatiously named after him, by him) and developed by Eke Panuku, the open-air, free, seawater harbour pool at Karanga Plaza is another reason to feel like Auckland is growing up and making the most of one of its greatest assets.
As I wrote in January: “In full view of a city alive with people, industry and marine activity, swimming in the pool exposes you in the best way. I felt very free swimming in Browny’s pool. My first trip to the pool was on Christmas day with my family. We trekked over Te Wero on that overcast day and threw our bodies, stuffed full of ham, into the water. While there has always been plenty to do in Auckland, the idea of being able to cool off without a trip to a beach on Christmas day felt like a redefinition of leisure in the central city and our relationship with the water surrounding us. The water was warmer than it had been in the sea over the summer, which I assume is science, and while it’s not crystal clear, it’s perfectly pleasant, and I didn’t emerge slicked or smelly.” / Anna Rawhiti-Connell
Point Erin Pool, Auckland
Though not as chic as its saltwater counterpart the Parnell Baths, the Point Erin Pools are a weekend must for central city dwellers. The same moulded plastic loungers are lined up against one edge of the main pool, and on the other side is a grassy picnic area shaded by pōhutukawa trees and complete with barbeque facilities. It is presided over by a gaggle of teenaged boys getting their first taste of authority, so the dodgy-looking slides and dive pool are often closed and interlopers met with a sharp blow of a whistle. This does not stop endless manu practice taking place. There is nothing too flash on site, and the family atmosphere makes it feel like you’ve gone to a small town for the weekend, despite the fact the din of the harbour bridge is audible in the right wind direction. Do not get in the spa under any circumstances, it is human soup. / Gabi Lardies
Bonus: paddling pools in parks
Usually free, these teeny-tiny pools are a good way for small people to cool off. Edwin Monk-Fromont likes the one in Grey Lynn Park in central Auckland, where toddlers can “head to the playground next door after their 20-minute window of enthusiasm is up. Adults will need to take your little one or borrow a friend’s for an excuse to have a quick, free, central suburban cool off.” The lifeguarded Fitzroy Pool in New Plymouth is also ideal for kids who aren’t ready to brave the big waves on the beach proper. There’s also a lovely paddling pool in Christchurch’s Botanic Gardens for a fun day out in warm weather (your tolerance for joyful shrieking dependent).
