About
The Windows 10 Wharariki Beach Cave Wallpaper is a photograph of Wharariki Beach in Puponga, New Zealand, that comes as the default lock screen wallpaper or login background for the Windows 10 operating system. The photograph was taken by Steve McCurry and shows the Archway Islands from a cave. The photo became the subject of memes in the years following Windows 10’s launch in 2015, similar to the Windows XP Bliss wallpaper. Some of the most viral memes have people pretend they’re at the beach and have taken the photo themselves.
Origin
On July 29th, 2015, Microsoft launched Windows 10. The default lock screen image is a photograph of Wharaiki Beach in Puponga, New Zealand, taken by photographer Steve McCurry, showing a view of the Archway Islands from a cave on the beach.
On October 2nd, 2018, the Facebook page Gamnesia posted a screenshot of a meme by now-private X / Twitter user @xeneofgenesis sharing an image of the wallpaper next to an image of Cheep Cheep Beach from Mario Kart DS, writing, “Lmao why does this random windows 10 lock screen image look like a HD version of Cheep Cheep Beach from Mario Kart DS,” garnering around 440 reactions in seven years. This is the earliest known meme about the wallpaper.
Spread
Memes about the Wharariki Beach Cave wallpaper continued to spread over the following years as it garnered virality online in the late 2010s and 2020s.
For example, on September 12th, 2020, X user @JhbTeam posted the wallpaper, writing, “nice early morning at the beach, feeling relaxed,” as if he took the photo, garnering over 75,000 likes in five years. The tweet was reposted to the /r/windows subreddit the next day, accumulating over 1,000 upvotes in five years.
On July 30th, 2025, Threads user @champagnecruz posted the wallpaper, writing, “Who needs a vacation when you have this,” garnering over 13,000 likes and 770 reposts in a month.
Instagram user officialsadbeige reposted a screenshot of the meme the next day, garnering over 13,000 likes in roughly the same span of time.
On August 23rd, X user @Liv_Agar posted the wallpaper, writing, “currently on vacation 🤩,” garnering over 483,000 likes in two days.
Later that day, X user @PACADISEFEVER quoted the post, writing, “One day people are gonna treat this like windows xp bliss wallpaper and put anime girls in it or something,” garnering over 218,000 likes in the same span of time.
The X post by @PACADISFEVER inspired numerous X users to photoshop anime characters and characters in general onto the beach in the following days.
For example, on August 24th, 2025, X user @Lil_Luna_IRLz posted a version with the Dragon Ball character Broly on the beach, garnering over 1,200 likes in a day.
Various Examples
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