Pancake Rocks and Blowholes

Yep, you read right.  Punakaiki, New Zealand is known for its pancake rocks and blowholes.

While we were in Springfield, not eating donuts, we saw a picture of the Pancake Rocks.  Jonathan mentioned that he wanted to go, and since they were only about 40 km further north than we were already going on our campervan-southern-south-island-road-trip, we decided to check them out.

When we got to the national park (about 10am), we were a bit sad to see that high tide wasn’t until 7:00pm that night.  The blowholes are at their best at high tide.  This meant that we were going to miss them.

But, the rocks were still there.  And, the best part is that entrance to the park is f.r.e.e.  Another great thing, is that we were almost the only ones there!

We had nearly the whole park to roam around by ourselves.  Actually, that’s a bit misleading; there is a path, and only a path, on which you can walk.

What are pancake rocks you might ask?  Well, they are rocks that are stacked to look like pancakes.  Yeah yeah, the obvious answer.  Here’s a bit more:

The Pancake Rocks are a heavily eroded limestone area where the sea bursts though a number of vertical blowholes during high tides. The ‘pancake’-layering of the limestone was created by immense pressure on alternating hard and soft layers of marine creatures and plant sediments, although scientists are still not exactly sure how.

We spent about an hour or so looking at all the amazing scenery and the really fun pancake rocks.  On the way out of the park, we noticed that there was a seal colony up the road.

We went over to the visitors’ center and asked if the seals resided there year round.  When we found out we did, we knew we were going.  Even though they were another 60 km further up north.

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Related posts:

1. Franz Josef Glacier and Fox Glacier
2. New Zealand Fur Seals at Cape Foulwind
3. The riskiest thing we’ve done
4. Milford Sound Cruise
5. No Donuts in Springfield

TAGS: blowholes, driving, New Zealand, ocean, pancake rocks, punakaiki, road trip, seals, tourism, Travel