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 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), 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 road through the West Coast, passes through the town.

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Be dazzled by the pancake-stacked rocks and the Punakaiki craters, where water pillars gush into the sky from rocks resembling giant piles of hot bread.

Nature began its work of art about 30 million years ago. For thousands of years, stratified layers of small sea creatures and sand were buried and compressed in the ocean bed. This process created areas with multiple layers of resistant limestone and softer sandstone. Seismic activity then raised the ocean floor to the surface, and those artistic slow movements, rain and wind, began to wear out the softer sandstone. This work resulted in cliffs and ravines with hundreds of horizontal slices along the vertical faces, like huge piles of pancakes.

In many places within the cliffs, vertical pits created by the rain were met by horizontal tunnels created by the ocean pounding strongly in its walls. Today, during high tide, ocean waves advance through increasingly narrow tunnels and push large volumes of water and compressed air up through the vertical wells. The result is a sibilant and throbbing landscape that rhythmically launches columns of salty water like the geysers. It's an awesome sight.

The trail provides magnificent views of the mainland mountains, rugged coastline and main attraction, stacked rocks like pancakes and vents. An informative signage along the way helps you understand what you are seeing. The best time to visit is during high tide.

The small town on the west coast of Punakaiki serves as a host for visitors who come to watch the famous rocks stacked like pancakes and vents. Here you will find some accommodation options, from hostels and homestays to independent cottages; there are also a variety of places to eat and galleries. Local operators offer horse riding, canoe rental, cave exploration, guided hikes and rafting adventures.

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With a high rainfall, the weather is a regular topic of conversation on the West Coast. Near the coast the annual rainfall is 2,000-3,000 millimeters, and it increases rapidly closer to the mountains. The highest rainfall, more than 10,000 millimeters a year, occurs in a narrow zone on the western side of the Southern Alps above 1,200 meters high.

Flooding is an ever-present threat. A substantial part of the budget of the West Coast Regional Council is spent on building and maintaining stopbanks along the major rivers and monitoring river levels and rainfall.

Although rainfall is high compared to the rest of New Zealand, it often occurs at high-intensity downpours. In the main towns, near the coast, more than half the days each year are fine and without rain. Average annual sunshine hours between 1,800 and 1,900 - fewer than in Christchurch, but more than in Timaru.

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