The park was the site of the 1995 Cave Creek disaster where fourteen people died as a result of the collapse of a scenic viewing platform.

[2] The small settlement of Punakaiki, adjacent to the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes tourist attraction, lies on the edge of the park.

In 1979, the Native Forest Action Council proposed a 130,000 hectare national park, including the northern Paparoa Ranges and land to the north and east.

[7] Rivers flowing from the Paparoa Ranges pass through the limestone syncline, creating subterranean waterways and extensive cave systems that are one of the features of the park.

Upstream of the Xanadu and Taurus Major sinkholes, on Bullock Creek (the most northerly on the west coast,[8] others being near Ross[9] and Fox Glacier[10]), a polje of up to about 1 km (0.62 mi)[11] square and 1 m (3 ft 3 in) deep can form after heavy rain.

The river gorges, confined by high, forest-crowned limestone cliffs, provide a means of access to the park's karst interior.

Dry, mossy streambeds, karren,[13] sinkholes (or dolines),[14] blind valleys and basins where water emerges from caves or vanishes into sinks are all indicators of the complex subterranean system beneath.

Intricate systems of shafts, passages and caverns have been slowly formed by the continual effects of water through the soluble limestone.

The majority of known cave systems are in the western side of the limestone syncline where underground drainage patterns are concentrated mainly along horizontal lines of weakness in the bedding planes.

[15] The Paparoa coastline is characterised by high cliffs cut away by waves from the Tasman Sea, with indented coves and sandy beaches.

[16] A significant feature of the coast is the colony of the rare seabird, the Westland petrel (tāiko), that is located on densely forested terraces just south of Punakaiki river.

[17] The Westland petrel breeding site at Punakaiki has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International.

On 22 March 2010, Gerry Brownlee (Minister of Energy and Resources) and Kate Wilkinson (Minister of Conservation) released a discussion paper including a proposal to remove 7,058 hectares of land from Schedule Four of the Crown Minerals Act 1991, including the Inangahua sector of Paparoa National Park.

The Truman Track, located 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) north of Punakaiki, provides access from State Highway 6 to a headland via a short walk through coastal forest of ferns, nīkau palms, podocarps and rātā, with flax nearer the coastline.