Pancakes anyone?

Sorry, you can put away the maple syrup, these pancakes are a little tough for chewing.


About 50 km south of Wesport the Paparoa National Park surrounds the tiny coastal village of Punakaiki. Apart from craft shops and the inevitable (and welcome) café, Punakaiki is also home to the pancake rocks – named for their similarity in appearance to a pile of pancakes.

The limestone is layered here with much softer mudstone, which is being eroded by the sea to form the pancakes. It seems that geologists are still not 100% certain about exactly how the rocks ended up in this layered form – the currently “in vogue” theory is a process called stylobedding. Under the extreme pressure inflicted on the shells and skeletons that form the limestone, the grains actually melted into a solution. Within the solution, certain minerals combined to form what is now the mudstone, leaving the rest to form the limestone.

From the path that loops around the rocks, you can get a great idea of just how powerful the sea is as it crashes in and around the inlets and caves.

My visit coincided with low tide, which was a pity as high tide is a much better time to look at the rocks. In particular, high tide with a decent storm running is best of all – there are fissure in the cave roofs that form blow-holes when the sea and wind conditions are just right. However, I was blessed with gloriously sunny weather for more or less my entire stay on the West Coast, so I wasn't really complaining.

Finally, take a look at this picture:

Can you see a man wearing a hat looking out to sea? Or a boy with spiky hair? Or how about a fish sitting on top of a rock? And isn't that a lion waiting to pounce on the fish? These are all there, according to those with the right combination of artistry and imagination. And, possibly, the local wine...