All this results in a truly wild coast, where the landscape is often very spectacular, where nature can often be observed in its primeval state, and with an abundant wildlife that includes seabirds, penguins and marine mammals. The Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki. Other interesting features include Nine Mile Beach and Okari Lagoon, just south of Cape Foulwind. This is one of New Zealand's best known coastal features. The Pancake Rocks are a spectacular maze of dissected limestone towers, constantly washed up by a rushing sea.
Several blowholes add an impressive touch in the right westerly conditions.
The whole coast of Paparoa National Park is magnificent, rugged and wild. The native rainforest is superb and, in its natural state, comes right to the water's edge. This little promontory at the bottom end of the Paparoa Coast is noted for its fur seal colony. The area was the scene of intense goldseeking in the late 1800s, and Okarito township was bustling with pubs, banks, stores, and 5000 miners. Now quietness has returned and the vegetation has hidden many remnants of that activity.