[4][5] The Kiritehere valley was settled in the 1900s,[6] 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 (649 m (2,129 ft)) and Mangatoa Saddle on 21 July 2009.

[1] Mangatoa and Manganui Roads follow a north–south route through the ranges, running from Marokopa, 56 km (35 mi) south, via Kiritehere, Moeatoa, rising over the 311 m (1,020 ft) Mangatoa Saddle, Waikawau and a lower 230 m (750 ft) saddle to follow the Manganui valley through to Awakino.

[18] The Northern Steamship Company's 307 ton[19] Kia Ora foundered on the reef in fog on 13 June 1907,[20] with the loss of 3 lives.

[28] Herangi is part of the roughly north - south Kāwhia Syncline,[30] 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.

[31] The main rivers flow across broad alluvial floodplains, from which the hills of Mesozoic rock rise sharply.

[30] 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.

It starts at the end of Gribbon Road and crosses the river near the hut, but is not passable after heavy rain.

[35] Waikawau Track is the longest, 14 km (8.7 mi), overgrown and unmarked in places, with windfalls, slips and flooding after heavy rain.

[37] The ridges are covered by a sub-alpine vegetation of low scrub and kaikawaka along with neinei, pepperwood and divaricating shrubs interspersed with areas of cushion bog.

Herangi and Coromandel Ranges are the only places where natural remnants of these critically endangered frogs live.