DinoFest prowls into town
Roaring, chomping, ‘‘Kiwi’’ dinosaurs can be found prowling the ferns and bushes of Hamilton Lake over Easter.
And a plateosaurus can be seen poking its head out of the lake.
It’s all part of Dinofest, set to grace the city for the first time.
The popular dinosaur exhibition features sculptures of still and interactive dinosaurs that would have roamed New Zealand 70 million years ago.
‘‘[It’s] based upon the community of Kiwi dinosaurs who lived in Gondwana, which is the super continent that New Zealand was part of millions of years ago,’’ event organiser Laurence Taylor said.
Finding dinosaur bones in New Zealand is rare and identifying the species difficult.
But dinosaurs definitely once lived in New Zealand and DinoFest brings that period back to life, Taylor said.
‘‘Typically, if you go and see a dinosaur exhibition then it’s going to be in a museum and you might see the fossils . . .
‘‘The idea is that we have dinosaurs roaming around in the ferns, the native bush and the trees which haven’t changed very much in millions of years. So, we help people understand the context of New Zealand’s prehistory.
‘‘Some people don’t know that there were actually dinosaurs in New Zealand.’’
And the first bone was found in the Waikato. It was the toe bone of a chicken or turkey-sized dinosaur, Taylor said.
Paleontologists weren’t sure whether it meant dinosaurs had lived in New Zealand, until they found evidence of an entire dinosaur community in the Hawke’s Bay region.
People are usually surprised to discover that a Tyrannosaurus rex would have been able to eat around 2000 beef burgers, one of the many quirky dinosaur facts the festival has in store, Taylor said.
But small children are usually intrigued by the lookalikes.
‘‘We have walking roaring dinosaurs and some baby dinosaurs. Some cute dinosaurs. So, they’re not scary they’re friendly Kiwi dinosaurs.’’
DinoFest is on at the Hamilton Lake Domain from tomorrow to April 2.