She's picking up poop as she talks to The Weekend Sun. 'Muck, horse manure, phrase it how you want,” laughs Helen Davies. 'It's an endless task – literally goes in one end and out the other.”

Helen cleans the paddocks daily. She likes them spotless. It's an endless and unenviable task.

A boy and billy goat buddy up at Ponies Plus. Photo: Supplied.

'Not at all. I quite enjoy it. It's my non-thinking time. What I do for therapy.”

And Helen needs some thinking time because she's got a lot on her mind at the moment. The voracious beast that is Papamoa is galloping eastward and gobbling up her Ponies Plus animal park.

'It has been sold to developers and I have to be out of here by November 1, 2016. That doesn't give me much time.”

Helen needs a long-term lease of at least two-and-a-half hectares but preferably 4.5ha. And soon!

Officially, Ponies Plus is a 'mobile, interactive animal experience”. 'But personally I would describe it as the love of my life, it is all I have ever wanted to do for as long as I can remember,” says Helen.

A roll call at Ponies Plus would be an inexact science. 'I couldn't tell you how many animals unless I sat down and counted all my chooks and ducks and goats.

'But we are basically a couple of horses, a couple of donkeys and six ponies.” Then there's the inexact, a whole bunch of rabbits, ducks, chooks, guinea pigs and goats. Menagerie should cover it.

'I've always been determined to provide this facility one way or another because I see a huge need for it,” says Helen.

The need is when she meets a whole range of people who've never held a baby rabbit, have never touched a chicken and didn't realise that ducks were warm.

'Yes, some people think they should be cold because they live in water.”

And while she's introducing city folk to the wonders of the animal kingdom Helen still needs a property and smartly. 'It's very tiring and traumatic for the animals to be moving all the time – it's been four times in the last 10 years.”

Helen and the horses, donkeys, ponies, ducks, chooks etc have given a lot of pleasure, and education, at schools, kindergartens, markets, fundraiser days and festivals. 'You just need to see the looks on faces really.” But they need a permanent or long-term home where people can drop in and see them. If you can help give Helen a call on 027 957 2887.

Helen will also need some manpower to move sheds, fencing and other heavy equipment.