The arch at Cape Farewell

This natural arch is found at -40.498591, 172.695851, just east of Wharariki Beach at the top of the South Island. These cliffs are quartz sandstone, and wind and wave action on the cliffs produce the fine quartz sand that comprises the sand dunes of Farewell Spit. Wikipedia says these cliffs are Cretaceous quartz sandstone structures, while GNS’s ‘Geology of the Nelson Area’ QMAP says the Farewell Formation of the Kapuni Group is ‘fluvial quartzofeldspathic sandstone and pebbly conglomerate’ that ‘formed on a braided floodplain or heavily laden meandering river system’. Okay, roughly the same as Wikipedia, except when it comes to the age. GNS puts the timing as occurring ‘throughout the Paleocene and earliest Eocene’, so not what Wikipedia says. It is not known if this discrepancy in dating the cliffs in the photo was of particular concern to the individual driven by the magnificent site to etch the colourful I❤AOT on the lookout railing.