Herangi Range
Herangi Range is a range of hills south of Marokopa and north of Awakino, in the Waikato region of New Zealand, reaching to the Tasman Sea at Tapirimoko, Tirua, Taungaururoa, Te Mauku and Ngarupupu Points. Just to the south of Ngarupupu, the Waikawau River enters the sea. Other rivers draining the range are Mangaotaki River, Awakino River and Manganui River. Herangi is part of the Whareorino conservation area.
Herangi is in the Maniapoto rohe. Pā and other archaeological sites are found close together along the coast, but very few in the range itself. The Kiritehere valley was settled in the 1900s, but much of the rest of the range is in Whareorino Conservation Area, of particular importance for its native frogs.
A Reims Cessna F152 II crashed into a tree on a ridge between Whareorino and Mangatoa Saddle on 21 July 2009. The pilot, who died, was inexperienced and had not complied with requirements to calculate a route allowing for the poor weather.
Geography
The main peaks from north to south are Maungamangero, Te Heruera, Maugatewharau, Te Whakapatiki and Herangi.Mangatoa and Manganui Roads follow a north–south route through the ranges, running from Marokopa, south, via Kiritehere, Moeatoa, rising over the Mangatoa Saddle, Waikawau and a lower saddle to follow the Manganui valley through to Awakino. The road was built about 1935, when the last surfboats plied wool to the Holm & Co vessel, Parera, off the beach at Nukuhakari. Prior to that, even travel on horseback was difficult.
Mt Duthie,, gets about of rain a year. It and Mt Brookes were named after the surveyors who mapped them, F Duthie and Edwin Stanley Brookes Jnr.
Piritoki Reef
Piritoki Reef lies about north of Tirua Point. Its sharp rocks create an area of turbulent sea. They rise to about a metre above sea level. The Northern Steamship Company's 307 ton Kia Ora foundered on the reef in fog on 13 June 1907, with the loss of 3 lives. The Chief Officer was blamed, with a suspicion of being inebriated, but his suspended certificate was returned within a few months.Tirua Point
Tirua Point has cliffs on the north side of the Point rising to over. In the 1860s it was thought the country was at its widest between Tolaga Bay and Tirua Point. The 1:50,000 map shows the easting of the northern headland of Ngararahae Bay, just south of Tirua Point as 1742785, and Marau Point, on the north side of Kaiaua Bay, on same latitude on the east coast, as 2068929 the difference being just over.Tirua Point is on Nukuhakari Station, where grazing increased the advance of dunes in both Nukuhakari and Ngararahae Bays. Thousands of spinifex, planted in 2015, 2016 and 2017, have reduced sand movement.
Geology
Herangi is part of the roughly north - south Kāwhia Syncline, Triassic Newcastle Group form the west side of the range, with sandstones, siltstones and greywacke folded, faulted and covered by Middle Jurassic Rengarenga carbonaceous sandstone and other sedimentary rocks. The main rivers flow across broad alluvial floodplains, from which the hills of Mesozoic rock rise sharply. Steep homoclinal ridges and hogbacks are prominent, with dip slopes often underlain by more resistant sandstone. The coast has near-vertical cliffs, generally behind an ironsand beach.Tracks
Currently 4 tracks offer alternative routes to Leitch's Hut, which has 16 bunk beds, heating, mattresses, non-flush toilets, untreated tap water and no booking system. Sam Leitch was awarded the area in a World War I soldiers' land ballot. His home was in the clearing where the hut is and his plantings of macrocapa and eleagnus remain. The tracks are classed as Advanced Tramping tracks, in the more difficult 5th level, as defined in DoC's 6 levels of walking track categories. The exception is Leitch's Track, which is a level easier, as an Intermediate: Easier tramping track.Leitch's Track is over. It starts at the end of Leitch Road, on a well graded road, then passes farmland and climbs into bush, before descending to Leitch's clearing, with no major streams to cross.
Mahoenui Track follows the Awakino River for. It is closed from 1 September to 10 October each year for lambing. It starts at the end of Gribbon Road and crosses the river near the hut, but is not passable after heavy rain.
Mangatoa Track crosses the Herangi Range for, starting at the Mangatoa Road saddle and gradually climbing to the Herangi Ridge, before turning right, down to the Waikawau Track junction and Leitch's Hut. It too is not passable after heavy rain.
Waikawau Track is the longest,, overgrown and unmarked in places, with windfalls, slips and flooding after heavy rain. It starts on Crawford Road on the north bank of the Waikawau River, near Waikawau, follows the river, then Mangapapa Stream to Waikawau Saddle and then drops to Leitch's Clearing and crosses the Awakino River to the hut.