The Wangapeka Track crosses Kahurangi National Park from the Motueka / Wangapeka valleys in the east to the West Coast near Karamea. It climbs two forested saddles over 1,000 m — Wangapeka Saddle and Little Wanganui Saddle — and follows the clear mountain rivers of the Wangapeka, Karamea, Taipo and Little Wanganui.

Much of the journey is through dense red and silver beech forest, with moss, ferns and lichen underfoot, and occasional openings onto tussock at Stag Flat and Little Wanganui Saddle. Gold was found in the Wangapeka valley in 1859; the track itself dates from the late 1800s, and historic Cecil Kings Hut remains a landmark of Depression-era mining along the way.