Monumental history
The Abel Tasman Memorial.
One of Golden Bay’s more unusual landmarks, the Abel Tasman Memorial, is hidden from the road by regenerating bush between Tarakohe Harbour and Ligar Bay. The stark white rectangular pillar and viewing platform, perched on a limestone outcrop with stunning views over Golden Bay, are reached by a short walk on an easy track from the signposted car park.
The memorial was constructed in 1942 to mark the official opening of the national park, and the 300th anniversary of Abel Tasman’s visit (18/19 December 1642). That was the earliest-recorded and tragic meeting between Maori and people of another culture, which resulted in conflict and death.
What is less well known is that the memorial site is an outlying section of Abel Tasman National Park, and one of 20 national monuments cared for by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, in partnership here with the Department of Conservation, which maintains the site and small reserve. The land was donated by the Golden Bay Cement Works and the memorial itself was commissioned and paid for by the Dutch Government. The memorial was designed by Ernst Plischke, an Austrian architect who fled Nazi Germany in 1939, and who was working in the New Zealand Government Architect’s office at the time. The memorial, his first public construction in New Zealand, was described as “a 10 metre concrete stele, as well as a marble slab with inscription, that emanated a monumental abstract simplicity”. The stele (upright pillar) is very slender, about 1.5 metres across but only about 25 cm through. Plischke’s original design presented the marble slab horizontally, like a table, but this was changed to the vertical many years ago because of the dust settling on it from the nearby cement works.
The carved marble slab and more recent information panels at the memorial explain some of the history of Tasman’s voyage of discovery and the December 1642 events which resulted in the death of four of his men. However, it is not possible to identify Tasman’s anchorage from the memorial, or see the beach from which Ngati Tumatakokiri warriors launched their waka to challenge the strangers.
Tasman scholar Grahame Anderson has identified from voyage drawings by Isaac Gilsemans that the anchorage was off Whariwharangi Bay, west of Separation Point. The site of the Maori settlement on shore is accessible only by boat or on foot, but more information about Tasman’s voyage and the events of 1642 can be found at the Wainui Bay car park and entrance to Abel Tasman National Park.
This year, the 367th anniversary of Tasman’s voyage of discovery, will be marked by various local events, including a special Live Poets evening (26 November), the launch of an interactive presentation at the Golden Bay Museum (December), and library displays. A publication developed by Mr Anderson will be installed in the Whariwharangi Hut and provide trampers from around the world with details of what is one of the most significant milestones of New Zealand’s bicultural history.
Penny Griffith
