Punakaiki’s Pancake Rocks - Roadside Story

A Manatū Taonga audio guide to Punakaiki's unusual geological phenomenon. Check out the Ministry for Culture and Heritage's audio guide in the image carousel above.

The famous Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki resemble a layered stack of pancakes, and caves beneath them open into blowholes which emit spectacular bursts of spray. The rocks are made of limestone – a sedimentary rock that is soluble in rainwater and often forms dramatic karst landscapes of caves, sinkholes and underground rivers.

West Coast places: coast road,
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/west-coast-places/7

Punakaiki blowhole,
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/limestone-country/3/1/2

Limestone country,
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/limestone-country

Karst,
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/limestone-country/2

Archival audio sourced from Radio New Zealand Sound Archives, http://www.soundarchives.co.nz/. Sound files may not be reused without permission from Radio New Zealand Sound Archives (Reference number T6394).

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Roadside Stories is a series of audio guides that follow major road trips in New Zealand. The stories cover the places you’ll pass along the way – their people, their history, their cultural and natural significance. For more information about Roadside Stories visit http://www.mch.govt.nz/roadside/