Punakaiki Hotels

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 goal at Dolomite Point south of the main village. The Pancake Rocks are a heavily eroded limestone area where the sea bursts though a number of 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), 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. State Highway 6, the only through road on the West Coast, passes through the town. Paparoa National Park's spectacular cliffs and caves typify the West's rugged coastline, with one of the best known features being pancake rocks and blowholes at Punakaiki. These fascinating limestone formations put on a spectacular spouting display when a high tide combines with a strong westerly swell. The Punakaiki Cavern and Te Ana o Matuku and Fox River Caves are fun to explore as well as the lower Pororari River walk which passes through subtropical lowland forest and a limestone gorge. The river can also be explored by canoe. Follow Truman Track through lush coastal forest to the cliff-tops and explore the Te Miko coastline where sea caves, rock pools and marine life are accessible at low tide.