Located 1 hour's drive north of Greymouth on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island and on the edge of the Paparoa National Park is the a small community of Punakaiki known for the world famous Pancake Rocks.

The Pancake Rocks are a very popular tourist goal at Dolomite Point south of the main village.

The Pancake Rocks are a heavily eroded limestone area where the sea bursts though a number of vertical blowholes during high tides.

Together with the 'pancake'-layering of the limestone (created by immense pressure on alternating hard and soft layers of marine creatures and plant sediments), these form the main attraction of the area.

The Pancake Rocks are presently explorable by a number of walkways winding through the rock formations, parts of these wheelchair-accessible and others carved into stairways up and down the rock faces. 

State Highway 6, the only through road on the West Coast, passes through the town.

Punakaiki is served by daily inter-regional and long distance bus and coach services to and from Nelson, Westport, Greymouth, Hokitika, Franz Josef, Fox Glacier Christchurch.

There is no passenger train services from Punakaiki to Nelson, Westport, Greymouth, Hokitika, Franz Josef or Fox Glacier, except for the combined bus/coach and train services from Punakaiki to Arthurs Pass and Christchurch.