Punakaiki

Punakaiki
Punakaiki
Coordinates: 42°6′30″S 171°20′10″E / 42.10833°S 171.33611°E / -42.10833; 171.33611
Country New Zealand
Region West Coast
District Buller District

Punakaiki is a small community on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand, between Westport and Greymouth. The community lies on the edge of the Paparoa National Park.

The Pancake Rocks are a very popular tourist destination at Dolomite Point south of the main village. The Pancake Rocks are a heavily eroded limestone area where the sea bursts through several vertical blowholes during high tides. Together with the 'pancake'-layering of the limestone (created by immense pressure on alternating hard and soft layers of marine creatures and plant sediments),[1] these form the main attraction of the area.

The Pancake Rocks are presently explorable by a number of walkways winding through the rock formations, parts of these wheelchair-accessible and others carved into stairways up and down the rock faces.[1] State Highway 6, the only through road on the West Coast, passes through the town.

Panorama of Punakaiki community

References

Media related to Pancake Rocks at Wikimedia Commons

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Punakaiki.

Coordinates: 42°06′30″S 171°20′10″E / 42.108410°S 171.336190°E / -42.108410; 171.336190


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/10/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.