The monument, originally referred to as the Abel Tasman Memorial, was designed by the architect Ernst Plischke as an abstracted sail, and consists of a large concrete monolith painted white.

Tasman was in the service of the Dutch East India Company, a corporation with quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, negotiate treaties, and establish colonies.

[3] They anchored in Golden Bay for the night, near where the Abel Tasman Monument is now located, intending to go on land to take on water and provisions the next day.

On 5 January, they attempted to land at Manawatāwhi / Three Kings Islands but were thwarted by a rocky shore, high surf, and several dozen Māori who threw stones at them from a cliff top.

[8][9] Golden Bay Museum, located in Tākaka some 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) from the monument, has a permanent display covering Tasman's journey and a diorama showing the waka ramming the Dutch sailors' boat.

[12] The New Zealand Government had first considered arrangements for the tercentenary of Tasman's visit in June 1938 but planning was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II.

[14] Within days, the Department of Internal Affairs sent its historian, John Beaglehole, to Golden Bay to explore the area for a suitable site for a memorial.

As Bill Parry, the Minister of Internal Affairs, explained in his speech at the monument's unveiling, the site where Tasman came closest to land was "past Wainui" and too difficult to access.

Eventually, he achieved the final abstracted form of a white concrete tapering column, 9.1 metres (30 ft) in height, referencing the Greek funerary stele.

[20] Alongside the monument was a low concrete plinth topped by a marble tablet, sourced from Tākaka Hill, with an inscription engraved in lettering designed by art historian Janet Paul.

[20] The design follows the principles of modern architecture by "rejecting ornament and embracing minimalism",[21] with Plischke's approach minimalist and strongly geometrical, in contrast to the wild and natural surroundings.

[22] The inscription on the marble slab reads:[23] Remember Abel Janszoon Tasman a commander in the service of the Dutch East India Company who discovered New Zealand & on 18th & 19th December 1642 anchored in this bay.

[29] The land gifted by the Golden Bay Cement Company and the Tata Islands are physically detached from the Abel Tasman National Park but are part of it.

Robert Jenkin, who built the diorama of the 1642 meeting of the races and is considered an expert on Tasman's visit of Golden Bay, believes that Pākehā and Māori views of history became more inclusive starting in the 1960s.

Brass plaques gifted by the Dutch royal family have been affixed near the base of the concrete pylon, and the inscribed marble tablet has been turned from horizontal to stand almost vertically.

The jury called the memorial a "national treasure", but urged the Department of Conservation to remove the timber platform to reveal the original paving design, saying that "New Zealand would then have an internationally significant example of early Modernist architecture".