New Zealand Walk: Punakaiki Gateway to dramatic limstone country
Having to change plans when the Paparoa Trail closed due to a slip, we decided to stay in the area and do day walks. Punakaiki turned out to be the perfect place.
The scenery is spectacular, the walking easy and interesting; and the geology absolutely fascinating.
It’s a karst area with high limestone cliffs, towering above underground caves, and sinkholes, formed by water running through soluble limestone. We based at Punakaiki Beach Camp, just down the hill from the pancake rocks for which Punakaiki is famous.
Our first day was spent exploring these rocks on Dolomite Point. From the shops, a short walk winds through native bush, then nikau and coastal flaxes as it reaches the coast. Here limestone cliffs have been worn by weather and sea, leaving holes and stacks resembling layered pancakes.
At high tide, water explodes out of these holes flying high in the air. It’s easy to take too many photos ! Five minutes down the road, a
wooden staircase leads to the cavern, again eroded by water and constantly changing.
There are glow worms further in, but they were a bit hard to spot with many people using torches.
About two kilometers north, Truman Track led through nikaus, ferns and flax to a marine reserve.
At the top of the bay, sandstone cliffs have been eroded to form sea caves at their bases, and further along a waterfall trickled down onto the beach.
The stony beach slopes down to a shelf of rock pools amongst large boulders. At low tide these are fascinating. Clinging to the base of the boulders were hun
dreds of large orange starfish, as if gathered for a meeting. There was tiny shark stranded on the rock shelf as the water receded.
We stayed marvelling at nature until sunset, then wandered back to camp.
On day two we walked a loop walk, up the Pororari River to Cave Creek, and back down Bullock Creek Road. The Pororari River track started really close to camp, so no transport was needed.
This gorge track is quite spectacular.
A well formed and maintained track runs beside the river with limestone cliffs and bluffs towering on either side. The water was crystal clear with deep green pools.
Friendly robins hopped all around, so close to our feet at times we almost stepped on them. The bush was so pretty with nikau, pungas, large broadleaf trees and lots of ferns and moss.
After an hour the track reached river flats and divided. A path to the right led over a saddle to the Punakaiki River.
We continued over a swing bridge, following the inland pack track, originally built by gold miners in the 1860’s. The ground was smothered in mosses lichens and ferns , while above, beech, kamahi and rimu dominated. Fat wood pigeons sat gorging themselves on berries and wekas hurried by.
After crossing several bridges we reached a grassy clearing where a monument stood, in memory of the 14 lives so tragically lost in 1995 when a viewing platform collapsed at Cave Creek resurgence. A half hour walk on
good track took us down into this deep gorge.
At the bottom was a dry river bed with enormous mossy boulders. After heavy rain a torrent rages through the creek, emerging from a complex underground cave system.
This whole area is full of sinkholes, caves, waterfalls, shafts and underground passages so it’s wise to stay on marked tracks. It was an eerie place.
We retraced our steps to the clearing, and continued north along the inland pack track, as far as Bullock Creek Road. Although a vehicle track, the scenery here was spectacular with tall nikau, native orchids, tarns surrounded by flax and above it all, towering limestone bluffs.
We wandered down the road taking lots of photos, until with three kilometres to go, we were offered a ride by a couple from the camp. It didn’t take much thought to accept the lift, admire the scenery from a seat, and spend the time gained in the tavern garden. The end of another lovely day.
On Day three we walked up the Fox River to the Ballroom Overhang. The first half hour was along a well marked trail through braided dry river bed, with stands of nikau, manuka and flax.
Just past the turn-off to Fox Cave, was a wide river crossing. From there the trail became undulating, frequently climbing and dropping to negotiate bluffs. The trees were bigger here, mainly kamahi and southern rata.
We saw two little black goats who stopped to stare curiously at us, but further on we met a culler, so their hours were numbered.
In two hours we reached the
junction with Dilemma Creek, and from here walked in the river, crossing and re-crossing several times to reach ‘The Ballroom’.
Although it was quite hard walking on slippery uneven stones, it was well worth the half hour scramble. The rock face was like a sculpture of giant waves. It was awesome.
As we headed back, the sun was reflecting off the silica in the rocks making them sparkle. We pocketed a souvenir each before returning to the river mouth.
The next day we walked up to stay in Pororari Hut, the last one on the Paparoa Trail. We took the
track through the Pororari River gorge again, because it was so pretty. After the junction with the pack track there is a climb for a few kilometres following bluffs over the river.
Then the trail is undulating through tall beech, and northern rata. There were loads of wood pigeons most with exceptionally bright plumage. They were too contented to move, and we could stand within a metre of them.
As we gained elevation there were many windfalls where tall trees were lying in a tangled mess, damage left by cyclones in 2014 and 2018.
We had a break by a swing bridge with a lovely swimming hole, before continuing uphill to the hut by early afternoon. What a serene place to be. It’s a lovely hut with a superb location and a wide deck offering magnificent views of the bluffs across the valley. We were lucky to have a clear sunny day and could just see the hut at moonlight tops. Only two of us were walking, but by 7.00pm, eight bikers had joined us, and we all sat to enjoy a magic sunset from the deck.
The next day was an easy meander back down. At the junction, instead of repeating the Pororari Gorge section, we took the bike trail over the saddle, and across the swing bridge into the Punakaiki River Valley.
It seemed warmer and was an easy end to our Paparoa walk. We were back to the ice cream shop in Punakaiki by 3 30pm.
It was a really lovely five days in this area, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to see some of New Zealand’s most beautiful bush without carrying a heavy pack.