Punakaiki Pancake Rocks: walks, tides and things to do

Walking the Pancake Rocks and the blowholes

The Pancake Rocks and Blowholes Walk is a short, paved loop from the highway out around Dolomite Point, through flax and low coastal forest to lookouts over the rocks, the surge pools and the blowholes. Most people take 20 to 30 minutes. Apart from one optional section with steps it is suitable for wheelchairs with assistance. Entry is free; the car park across the road charges $2.50 a half hour or $20 a day, paid by card only, with the first ten minutes free.

The layering is what makes them. About 30 million years ago, fragments of marine creatures and plants settled on the seabed at depths of around 2 km. Water pressure squeezed them into alternating hard and soft bands, a process called stylobedding. Earthquakes later lifted the limestone above the sea, and rain, wind and salt spray have been eating the softer layers faster than the hard ones ever since, which leaves the stacked look.

Things to do in Punakaiki beyond the rocks

Most people see the rocks and drive on. If you have an afternoon, the walks behind the village are the better half of Punakaiki, and none of them is hard.

• Truman Track: starts on the highway 3 km north of the village and runs through coastal forest to a small beach below limestone cliffs, where a waterfall drops straight onto the sand. Half an hour to an hour return, and our pick of the short walks.
• Pororari River Track: follows a limestone gorge upstream from the highway bridge at the north end of the village, under nīkau palms and overhanging cliffs, with the river running green below. About three hours return for the whole track, but you can turn round whenever you like; it is also the walking exit from the Paparoa Track.
• The Paparoa Track: a 55 km Great Walk over the Paparoa Range, fully open since March 2020, walked in three days or ridden by mountain bike in two. It ends at Punakaiki, so a few of the people you meet in the village have just come off the tops.
• Caving and rafting: at Charleston, about half an hour north, Underworld Adventures run glow worm cave trips. 3 of our itineraries include the rafting trip through the caves, and 2 the walking cave tour.
• The Westland petrel: a large black seabird that breeds only here, in a strip of forested hills about 8 km wide between Barrytown and Punakaiki. From autumn to spring the birds fly in from the sea at dusk to their burrows.

The Paparoa National Park Visitor Centre, across the road from the rocks, has track conditions, tide times and weather. It is the place to ask before you set out on anything longer than the rocks.

How to get to Punakaiki

The only road is State Highway 6, the coast road between Westport and Greymouth, and for much of the 44 km south to Greymouth it runs along the cliffs with the Tasman on one side and the Paparoa Range on the other. It is one of the best stretches of coast driving in the country. Of our itineraries, 12 arrive from Christchurch, usually on the TranzAlpine to Greymouth and then by road up the coast, and 10 come up from the glaciers.

There is fuel in Greymouth and Westport and very little in between, so fill up before you leave either. The coast road is narrow and winding in places, with one-lane bridges, and slips close it now and then after heavy rain; check the NZ Transport Agency map in wet weather.

How long to spend in Punakaiki

An hour covers the Pancake Rocks, a coffee and the loo. Half a day adds the Truman Track and a look up the Pororari gorge. A night gives you the rocks at high tide whenever it falls, a sunset over the Tasman from the beach, and the petrels at dusk in season, which is why we prefer it to a drive-through. Most of our itineraries sleep here once and then carry on: 12 of them south to Franz Josef, 7 north to Nelson, and 9 back to Christchurch, some by way of Arthur's Pass.

The upper West Coast is the part many South Island trips skip, because they cross the Alps further south. Our 14 day South Island itinerary shows how Punakaiki and the Buller Gorge fit into a full circle of the island.

Where to stay in Punakaiki

There is not much, and what there is fills up in summer. Our itineraries use two places: the Punakaiki Treehouse, on 9 of them, and the Scenic Hotel Punakaiki, on 9, which sits right behind the beach, a short walk from the rocks. Otherwise the village has a holiday park, a few motels, lodges and a backpackers, strung along the highway. If you cannot find a bed, Greymouth has far more, 45 minutes south.

Places to eat are few, so if you are arriving late, it is safer to eat in Greymouth or Westport on the way. Tours through Punakaiki start from NZ$3,460.

Weather and the best time to visit

Punakaiki is mild for its latitude: no month has an average temperature below 10°C, which is why nīkau palms, the world's southernmost palm, grow here in numbers. It is also the West Coast, so it rains a lot and the sandflies are keen from spring to autumn. Summer brings the most visitors, up to about 6,000 a day at the rocks before the pandemic, and the car park fills by mid morning. Autumn and winter are quieter and often calmer and clearer between the fronts. Whatever the season, come for the tide, not the clock.