Hawkes Bay Farmyard Zoo — Attraction in Hawke's Bay

Visited here on Saturday with my family, the animals were all very friendly. The pigs were in their pens with no food, which was quite sad. The staff were lovely and my daughters loved their pony ride. Went into the small shop to buy food however you can clearly see the best before dates on the packets of chips and they had past there best before, some in may. Brought a couple of drinks of the dollar shelf thinking what a deal but once the kids and I had started drinking realised they were also past their best before date. The playground was lots of fun for the kids to, the kids also loved being able to hold the guniea pigs. The goats were all very friendly, especially the cute brown and white ones, however one looked heavily pregnant and would bunt the other goats. Also one of the fluffy sheep goat like animals had a limp. It was so cool to see one of the ponies and llamas get taken out by the staff members and walked around. Overall a good trip for the kids, they loved the animals and the playground. Reasonably priced, and a good place to spend a few hours. Would be better if they didn't sell expired foods and if the small shop was so dingy, dirty and small. Good place to bring the kiddies in push chairs as is push chair friendly. Would...

The staff were nice and the atmosphere was good but their poor treatment and care of some of the animals was appauling. It was clear that there was no research done into the care of the animals in the place. Some of the cages weren't secured and animals could get out, many of the animals clearly hadn't been groomed. (e.g. Gunk on their eyes, plucked feathers, matted fur, unclean tanks, muddied fur, etc)

As well as that their poor Rainbow Lorikeet. It was in a small cat cage with no room to fly and only two perches and two toys. The cage was rusted and there was mouldy and rotting food stuck to the bottom of cage. As well as all of this it was alone, away from the other birds and had plucked out most of it's feathers due to stress.

Their turtles had grown fungi on their shells due to their small tank and lack of room. The fish tank hadn't been cleaned and was overstocked to the point where it was green and the fish seemed tired and stressed.

Overall pretty disgusting and disappointing. Wouldn't want to support them due to lack of care, knowledge and time spent with and on...

My kid's really enjoy this place. Bring a picnic lunch. Get one or two of the $1 food cups to feed the animals (1 or 2 per kid) and walk around and feed the animals (be sure to go through the gate into the second enclosure too, as you might think there is only one enclosure). At the end of feeding the animals, wash your hands, eat and have the kids enjoy the playground (can milk a fake cow there, ride a saddle, walk over a shaky bridge, jump on trampolines, go on a big slide and swing on great barrel swings). You can ride ponies for $5 (short walk), ride a modified 4 wheeler turned train for $4 (odd that they put tacky $ signs on the top showing this is something that will make them money). We go about once a year and the kids have a blast. They might even spend more time on the playground than walking through and feeding the animals. I wouldn't go out of my way to drive here from another region of the country; and it is definitely more interesting for kids (if you don't have small kids with you, you might not find it...