Tauranga’s oldest wildlife park has hit the market for sale, and it comes with hundreds of cute and cuddly animals.

Marshalls Animal Park, near McLaren Falls, was launched 35 years ago by Harold and Eileen Marshall and their son, Terry, and now has about 280 animals, including guinea pigs, calves, sheep, deer, giant African ostriches, Texas longhorns and Clydesdale horses.

Son Terry now runs the park and told OneRoof that the decision to sell had been difficult. "We definitely want to see the animal park carry on because we know it's such a great thing for Tauranga," he said.

He said his mum had died earlier this year, and the time had come for Terry and his four siblings to move on and let new owners take care of the park and the 63.1ha farm it sits on.

Generations of Tauranga people have visited the animal park in the last 60 years. Photo / Supplied

"We just felt we had to do something instead of leaving it to 20 grandkids to sort out. We thought we'd better do something while there are only five of us."

Terry said his family had purposely kept the park simple to keep the costs down for visitors, but he said there was huge potential to develop the business.

"A lot of our animals are basic farm animals, plus some extras we've got. It just gives kids and even adults a bit of interaction and fun."

The hope is that a new owner will buy both the land and the business. Photo / Supplied

Terry's grandparents purchased the farm at McLaren Falls Road in 1926. His father sold some of the land in 1965 to Tauranga City Council, which turned it into McLaren Falls Park.

The animal park is one of eight titles being sold off by the Marshall family trust after almost a century. The property totals 63ha and has an RV of just over $12m.

"Someone may be interested in buying the whole thing, but I would think because of the titles it's sort of lifestyle blocks really, and I would think that they would be individually sold, but you never know, do you?"

There is an option to buy either the entire 63ha farm or one of the eight titles. Photo / Supplied

Property Brokers agent Katie Walker, who is marketing the property with Brett Ashworth, said Marshalls Animal Park was a huge part of Tauranga’s history.

“People are taking their grandkids because they were taken when they were children, so that’s pretty cool.”

Walker said both the section and the business were for sale, and the hope was that someone would buy the land and farm park and continue running it.

“We would obviously prefer [they bought] the section and the business because there’s value in that business and obviously they just go so well together.”

Walker said a lot of the chattels included in the sale were living. “How do you value a guinea pig or a six-year-old rabbit? We don’t really know - we are still working on that.”

Walker, who grew up on a farm and still lives on one, said even she was amazed by how much there was to see when she went there.

“There are so many cool things to look at. The animals are so well cared for, and even though they may have been petted by people all day, they always seem happy to come up and greet visitors and people, and I think that’s a credit to how well they run the park.”

The four-bedroom Marshall family home on 10.01ha is one of the properties that could be bought separately. Photo / Supplied

The remainder of the land has been operating as a dairy run-off.

She reiterated that it could be bought as one or separately.

The Marshall family home sits on a 10.01ha section, but there’s another section with accommodation and five other sections that are predominantly bare land.

Walker said the properties could attract a wide range of buyers, from those looking for bare land lifestyle blocks that had fabulous views and were close to the city, developers who might be able to subdivide the sections to slightly smaller blocks, as well as people who might want to set up an avocado or kiwifruit orchard on the land.

“It is special to be able to secure something and keep a decent amount of land holding in an area like that.”

- Marshall Animal Park and McLaren Falls Road, in Omanawa, Bay of Plenty, are for sale, tenders closing December 12