September 22 2011 - Punakaiki New Zealand
We finally made it to Punakaiki in the early afternoon on the 22nd. We stopped at a gift/coffee shop adjacent to the info center in town, where I got a really tasty chai latte, and Mark got a coffee. From there, we took the stroll through the pancake rocks. The rocks were formed millions of years ago from alternating layers of soft and hard limestone. The soft limestone is gradually washed away creating this pancake effect. In some places, whole chunks of it have fallen away into the sea. At high tide, the water makes a thunderous noise when it pounds in through the holes. Furthermore, when it hits the right spot, water shoots meters into the air, creating a blow hole effect. Unfortunately, though being there at high tide, it was a neap tide, so we didn’t see much of a spray.
