Cleopatras Pool

Cleopatra's Pool sits about twenty minutes up the Torrent River from the Abel Tasman Coast Track, and it is the freshwater alternative to the coast's beaches: a deep pool in golden granite, fed by a small fall, with a chute of water-smoothed rock alongside that people use as a natural slide. The rock is coated in a film of algae and moss, which is exactly what makes the slide work and also what makes everything around it treacherous underfoot. That is the honest caution here - people are injured at this pool most seasons, from slipping on the rock rather than from the slide itself, and the water is deep and cold enough to take the breath. There are no facilities and no supervision. The side track leaves the main coast route near Torrent Bay, which most people reach by water taxi, so it fits into a day trip rather than requiring the full multi-day walk.

What you actually see

• The granite pool - deep, cold, fed by a small fall.
• The natural slide - the moss-lined chute of smoothed rock.
• The Torrent River - the twenty-minute walk up from the coast.
• The bush setting - beech and fern above the pool.

When to go

December to March, when the water is bearable. Weekday mornings are quieter; in January it can be busy for a small pool.

Honest expectations

The rock is slippery everywhere, not only on the slide, and injuries happen most summers. The water is cold and deep with no supervision. No facilities. Sandflies are persistent.

Nearby

Torrent Bay and Anchorage are on the coast; Bark Bay is north along the track.