This entry was posted on 1/8/2007 4:04 PM and is filed under New Zealand.
The Pancake Rocks of Punakaiki
We spent the night in Greymouth and the next morning drove north up the
coast to Punakaiki. The highlight of this area is a coastal
formation of limestone rocks known as The Pancake Rocks, because of the
unusual layering.
As the rocks were formed from shell deposits over millennium, there
were occasional floods of mud that were also laid down. After the
rock was formed deep within the earth, geologic action pushed it
up to the surface, where the mud layers were eroded faster than
the limestone layers. It's a rare process know as Stylobedding...
The result is spectacular! Layers and layers of thinly
stacked rock create these sculptural forms and blowholes.
Combined with the sound of the crashing and surging waves, it was truly
worth the whole trip over here to see them.
We'll let the following photos and movies give you a sense of the experience...
