Tarakohe, in older sources referred to as Terekohe, is a locality in the Tasman District of New Zealand's upper South Island, located east of Pōhara in Golden Bay.

Geological surveys of Golden Bay showed an area of 24 square kilometres (9.3 sq mi) that held a 30-metre (98 ft) thick layer of limestone suitable for producing cement.

[7] One of the 17 deaths caused by the 1929 Murchison earthquake was at the cement works when a cliff face collapsed onto a powerhouse, killing the engineer Arthur Stubbs inside the building.

It came under the ownership of Fletcher Challenge and the 1988 closure of the facility at Tarakohe had a significant economic and employment impact on Golden Bay.

[10] The Golden Bay Cement Company developed Port Tarakohe in several stages; a concrete wharf was added in 1977.

Originally referred to as the Abel Tasman Memorial and designed by the architect Ernst Plischke, the centrepiece of the monument is a concrete monolith painted white and symbolising a Greek funerary stele.

Located on a bluff east of Tarakohe Harbour, the land for the monument was gifted by the Golden Bay Cement Company.