Nature’s Pancakes

The Pancake Rocks and Blowholes 

New Zealand, South Island, West Coast, Punakaiki

Welcome to my birth place, the West Coast of the South Island, wild, rugged and some would say “The Wet Coast” but my Grandad always called it “The land of sunshine and honey”

Punakaiki is situated between Greymouth and Westport on the West Coast of the South Island on the stunning Coast Road. Punakaiki is at the centre of the Paporoa National Park and is famous for the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes.

These limestone beauties  have been formed by nature’s forces and date back 30 million years. They started at seabed level. Dead marine creatures rich in lime were deposited on the bottom of the sea and then layered and sandwiched between softer layers of mud and clay.  They were subjected to great forces and formed limestone. Earthquakes pushed the seabed up above sea level and the coastline and cliffs were formed. Nature’s forces in the form of the surging waves, wind and rain eroded the softer materials leaving the harder stone and the layers of “pancakes”.

It’s a place where you can also see Nature’s forces in spectacular action. When the tide is high and the weather conditions are rough, the Tasman Sea surges into the caverns under the rocks and bursts up through the “chimneys” or fissures in the rocks. These are called blowholes. The power of the surge blasting upward is explosive and impressive.

Travelling is a passion and is great but home is a wonderful place too!

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Forces of Nature.”

Yoroshiku Onegai shimasu

Leanne