The Boat Harbour Rockpool - perhaps more enticingly referred to as The Champagne Spa Pool - is every bit as beautiful as all those pictures you’ve seen on social media. With azure blue water that is clear all the way through to the bottom and craggy rock walls protecting you from the wild ocean beyond, it’s not hard to see why it’s become such a sensation. To complete the package, it’s less than a five minute walk from the car park!
So is it worth the hype? Absolutely! Should you visit on a hot weekend in summer? Definitely not! Though we do have some tips for avoiding the crowds later in the article.
Here’s everything you need to know about visiting the Boat Harbour Rockpool.
The walk to the Boat Harbour Rockpool aka Champagne Spa Pool
The stats
Distance: 180m each way
Elevation gain: 15m
Difficulty: Easy, but requires rock hopping
Trailhead: Noamunga St Car Park
How to visit safely
The Boat Harbour rockpool is quite sheltered from the ocean by high rock walls on all sides. Despite this, it’s still best to visit on a low to mid tide and when the swell is slight in order to minimise the chance of large waves entering the pool.
Even during a slight swell there’s always the possibility of a rogue wave crashing in, but generally speaking, it’s very calm. If you actively want the white water effect then you would want to visit on a moderate swell, but be mindful that some waves could be strong enough to knock you around inside the pool.
It’s possible that you might be able to visit the pool on a high tide with a slight swell, but we personally haven’t seen it on a high tide to verify.
The walk to the Boat Harbour Rockpool
The walk to the rockpool is so short you can even see a sliver of the pool from the car park! To get there take the narrow gravel path leading towards the whale watching platform.
After 120m you’ll reach a couple of bench seats and this is the end of the formed path.
The next section to the pool will see you rock hopping gradually downhill. You’re only 60m away and you’ll bear left, first down some larger rock slabs and then along smaller rocks and boulders.
There’s no set path for this, but the rock is very grippy when dry and the only thing to be mindful of is that some of the smaller rocks move under your weight, but as most of the rocks are large, it’s not much of an issue.
You’ll then see a small rockpool and the larger Champagne Spa Pool behind it.
Swimming at the Boat Harbour Rockpool
The rockpool is small but perfectly formed, and that water colour really does have the wow factor.
It is the kind of spot that feels crowded with only a handful of people, but if you luck out and get it to yourself it’s an absolute dream.
It’s best to pick a sunny day to get that beautiful blue water colour, we’ve been on overcast days and the water is an inky blue/black.
Entering the water is easy as you can sit on the rocks on the edge of the pool and slide in. It’s very deep throughout almost all the pool.
The only point I could stand up was on the far left side, which is another entry point if you’d rather step down into the pool on tiered rocks (it’s easier to get out the pool on this side).
It’s one of the loveliest rockpools I’ve swum in due to the depth and the fact that any coral etc is far beneath you.
It’s also very sheltered, so any waves entering the pool were minimal (though we did have one large wave sneak up on Joe at the edge of the pool, so watch out for those if you’re sitting beside the pool).
A note on crowds
You wouldn’t believe how many times we visited this pool before we hit the jackpot and it wasn’t busy! It is a really small pool so you don’t want more than a couple of other people there at most in an ideal world.
It’s best visited midweek and even then not during the middle of the day in summer. We came many times midweek in summer and it was heaving.
If you want to come in summer or on a warm weekend, come early or late. You won’t get the same vibrant water colour, but it will likely be just you at the pool.
Our most recent visit was in April in the middle of the day and it was just us there for the majority of our visit, which to be honest, was a real surprise. So outside of peak season you can still get lucky even when the weather is warm.
If you arrive to find the main pool is busy, there is a smaller pool 20m to the north of it. It has a lot of rocks on one side of the pool so it’s not really a swimming spot, but you can definitely cool off there while you wait for the main pool to empty out.
There are also a few small pools on the other side of the walking track, to the right of the gravel path, but they are quite shallow.
Keep them wild
Please remember to take all rubbish with you and keep these places wild and pristine - as with anywhere in the outdoors. It’s important to leave them exactly as you found them so they will remain beautiful for generations to come.
Litter tends to breed litter, so if you do spot any and are able to pick it up and dispose of it outside the area, it will go a long way to keeping the area clean.
Parking for the Boat Harbour Rockpool
The car park for the Boat Harbour Rockpool is on Noamunga Street and there is room for a fair number of cars to park here. It’s roughly a 10 minute drive from Nelson Bay and 5 minutes to Anna Bay. There are no facilities at the car park.
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