Late afternoon at the Pancake Rocks, Punakaiki, West Coast

The well-known Pancake Rocks, near Punakaiki on the South Island West Coast, are an unusual quirk of Nature that attracts thousands of tourists every year. The finely layered rock, known as dolomite, is formed from sedimentary deposits laid down over many millions of years that have then been lifted up above sea level by tectonic forces to form coastal terraces. These terraces were then subjected to erosion, a process helped by the presence of acidic peat swamps that would have increased the rate at which the underlying rock was dissolved by rainwater. Finally, a rise in sea level following the end of the last ice age allowed waves to erode the seaward parts of the coastal terraces, exposing the dolomite to form the distinctive “stacks of pancakes” as they appear today.

The Pancake Rocks are spectacular in their own right, but are particularly so during and after rough weather when big swells pound the coast. Countless years of wave action have left the Pancake Rocks riddled with natural blowholes that belch out powerful and deafening blasts of spray, especially around high tide – the best time to see these forces in action.