Punakaiki
The heaving swells of the Tasman Sea have carved the coastline of the West Coast for millions of years. Nowhere is the effect on the landscape more spectacular and profound than at Punakaiki. These rocks really are remarkable pieces of natural sculpture, a series of stratified limestone stacks which, over many thousands of years, have been eroded to give the effect of giant piles of neatly stacked pancakes. Another prominent feature are the blowholes that, at high tide or in heavy weather, regularly throw up columns of dazzling spray high out of the blowholes – Best seen after wonderful westerly storms when the sun is reasserting itself in the face of fantastic cloud formations on the horizon.
