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Pancake Rocks in New Zealand. Photo by Bernd Hildebrandt. .

Top 10 Interesting Facts about Pancake Rocks

The Pancake Rocks and Blowholes are a coastal rock formation at Punakaiki on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. The Pancake Rocks and Blowholes are located at Dolomite Point, immediately adjacent to the village of Punakaiki.

Punakaiki is a small village on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located between Westport and Greymouth on State Highway 6, the only through-road on the West Coast. The Pancake Rocks at Dolomite Point near Punakaiki are a heavily eroded limestone area where the sea bursts through several vertical blowholes. Here are the Top 10 Interesting Facts about Pancake Rocks.

1. Pancake Rocks obtains its name from the shape of the rocks

The Pancake Rocks take their name from their strange formation, thin layers of limestone piled upon one another like a stack of pancakes. They were formed from the skeletons of tiny marine creatures and have been subject to many millions of years of weathering.

The ‘pancake’ layering of the limestone was created by immense pressure on alternating hard and soft layers of marine creatures and plant sediments. The process is called stylobedding.

2. The landforms where created through erosion

Pancake Rocks near Punakaiki in Paparoa National Park, West Coast Region, South Island of New Zealand. Photo by Krzysztof Golik..

The limestone of the Pancake Rocks has been uplifted and then eroded into the current landforms by a combination of two processes.

The karst erosion (a slow process where chemical erosion of the limestone occurs through the action of water flowing in joints and caverns), and coastal erosion (including the collapse of underground caverns).

3. Pancake Rocks began with the accumulation of limestone in the sea

The limestone rocks of the Punakaiki region began forming on the sea floor in warm coastal waters, offshore from a group of low-lying islands.

There was a great profusion and diversity of marine organisms growing in these waters, and when these animals died, their shells settled on the sea floor along with small amounts of sand and mud eroded from nearby islands.

Over millions of years, vast quantities of shell debris accumulated on the sea floor, eventually forming a thick deposit of nearly pure calcium carbonate.

4. They are the most photographed formations in New Zealand

It has been claimed that the Pancake Rocks are the most photographed rock formations in New Zealand. State Highway 6 is the only through-road on the West Coast, and a large number of visitors pass through Punakaiki.

In 2017, it was estimated that there were 450,000 visitors, and many of these take the short walk to view the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes.

5. During high tides, the sea bursts through vertical blow holes

In many places, deep inside the cliffs, narrow vertical air shafts created by the rain met with horizontal tunnels created by the pounding ocean. Today, around high tide, the ocean swells rush headlong through ever-narrowing tunnels and force large amounts of water and compressed air to race upward through the vertical shafts.

The result is a hissing, heaving, thumping countryside that rhythmically emits geyser-like plumes of salt water. In a strong westerly swell, this creation of nature is a very impressive sight.

6. Each stack of rocks has its own shape

Pancake Rocks. Photo by Christian Michel. .

The Pancake Rocks in New Zealand really do look like thick pancakes stacked on top of each other. The stacks of ‘pancake’ can be really high while others are short. Each stack has its own unique shape 鈥� some look like jagged defensive spikes, some like watchtowers, some broader like buildings.

The sight is simply miraculous to behold. This is because for millions of years they have been slowly carved away. Wind, rain and acidic waters have each taken turns at shaping these rocks until what we see today.

7. The layers of ‘pancakes’ are separated by siltstone

Each 鈥榩ancake鈥� consists of a layer of limestone layer made up of tiny shell fragments, separated from the next pancake by a thin layer of siltstone.

Thousands of years of rain, wind and sea spray have etched the softer siltstone into nearly-horizontal grooves, and rounded the edges of the limestone layers, which together look like giant layers of pancakes.

8. Pancake Rocks is home to birds and marine life

Photo by Krzysztof Golik. .

Punakaiki is also home to an array of bird and marine life depending on what time of year you visit. The t膩iko (Westland petrel) is endemic to New Zealand, its only breeding ground is just south of Punakaiki.

Rather than having nests t膩iko are ground burrowing like mutton birds. The wily weka is part of the rail family. The birds have reddish brown feathers blotched and streaked with black. The Hector’s dolphin is also found here.

In fact they are only found in New Zealand鈥檚 waters. The grey dolphin with black and white markings and a round dorsal fin is the most easily recognized species of dolphin in New Zealand.

9. The rocks were formed over 20 million years ago

Scientists believe that the rocks were formed under the sea around 33-22 million years ago. The North and South islands were further away from each other than they are today and the sea level was rising to cover almost all of what is now New Zealand.

Our pancake rocks started off as limestones which were slowly built up out of the lime-rich bodies, fragments and shells of tiny marine creatures like brachiopods, foraminifera and sea eggs, along with sands and gravels suspended in the water.

10. The rocks were created by crashing tectonic plates

Pancake Rocks near Punakaiki – New Zealand. Photo by Anagoria.

The South Island Alps was being formed as the Pacific Oceanic Plate crashed into the Australian Continental Plate. This Earth-shattering event created huge pressures on the sedimentary limestone.

It became deformed and separated out into layers of mudstone and dolomitic limestone (this dolomite is a harder limestone, rich in magnesium). Then the whole lot was pushed up out of the sea.

Once they were above the water, the layers became exposed to the weather, wind, crashing waves and salt. The layers of softer mudstone were eroded more quickly than the harder limestone layers. The result is that the cliffs look like stacks of pancakes seen around Punakaiki today.