Punakaiki’s Pancake Rocks
About 30 million years ago, quantities of dead marine creatures and plants drifted down to the seabed where they were compressed into layers and layers of limestone that alternated with carpets of mud.
Subterranean rumbling and shrugging eventually brought them to the surface where they now stand as spectacular geological formations on the coast — which New Zealand, with typical understatement, has named Pancake Rocks.
They do indeed look like nibbled-at stacks of pancakes, sculpted by wind, rain and sea and, thanks to the efforts of a colony of white-fronted terns, even appearing dusted with icing sugar.
But there's action here too: waves send spray shooting out of blowholes with a sudden whoosh! that makes everyone jump and laugh. And then there's the surge pool, more imaginatively labelled the Devil's Cauldron, where the Tasman rushes in through a hole in the rock wall to seethe and churn in the enclosed space.
This is raw nature at its most accessible. There's a well-made loop path through the bush down to the rocks, where you can walk along and around them to get some spectacular views up and down the coast foregrounded by these remarkable layered stacks. You can admire it all as you wait for the blowholes to perform, and then carry on around the rim of the surge pool to watch in fascination as, far below, the waves pour in to break on the rock inside and foam up against the walls. There's always an appeal in being perfectly safe, yet so close to what would be almost certain death.
Then, in spring, you can continue around and marvel at the tenacity of the terns, which manage to hatch their eggs and raise chicks on windswept flat rocks that seem the very worst choice for a nest.
Safety
Keep hold of geo kids, and watch out for the selfie-obsessives who ignore the warning signs and insist on posing while standing on top of the wall right above that precipitous drop all the way down to the surge pool. Don't be one of them.
Best Time to Visit
Try to time your visit for high tide, when the blowholes will be operating most vigorously; and a westerly wind is helpful too. Fortunately, that's pretty much a given on the Coast.
LOGGING REQUIREMENTS
Take a photo of the Devil’s Cauldron including your GPS, a geocaching item eg TB or your caching name on a piece of paper and include with your log
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.