Blow Holes

As Carol and Roger worked their way up the west coast of the South Island, they got ever deeper into rain forest.  From a distance, the scene looked much like the beaches on the Olympic Peninsula.

Our destination was Punakaiki National Park…known for its pancake rocks and  blow holes.

OK, these rocks do look a bit like a stack of pancakes, but does that make it worthy of a national park?  

The answer dates back 35 million years, when successive layers of shell sediment fossilized forming these layers of rock.  Some of the layers were softer than others…

…which meant that after 35 million years of waves crashing into them,

…you got some pretty interesting rock formations.

 …which is where the blow holes come from.  

Where there are holes like this in the rock, and the tide surges in,

It creates a geyser, 50 feet high….with a booming force which is heard (and felt during the winter)…

…only to settle down then seconds-later repeat the process.

This happened not just in one place…

…but everywhere the sea had cut a hole in the rock.

Promotional Photo

On days when the sea is running strong, the geysers can double in height, and (when the sun is out) be quite spectacular.

And, as we did nearly every day, we discovered a new kind of flora or fauna…this one a fern called Spleenwort (which certainly looks prettier than you would guess from its name)…growing out of the bark of several trees in the misty air of Punakaiki.