Dinomite day out
Hamilton gets its first taste of roaring, brawling dinosaurs in a jungle-like setting.
It’s Hamilton’s own Jurassic Park.
Roaring, moving – and sometimes brawling – robotic dinosaurs roam through a jungle-like setting in Te Rapa.
It’s part of the Amazing Dinosaur Discovery, an event that graced the country for its first time on Boxing Day.
Walking through the venue would be like walking through a dinosaur-filled jungle, event manager Elly Moody said.
The three-hour interactive walk through the show will be running out of Hamilton for a month, until January 27.
But organisers plan to bring the show to all major New Zealand towns and cities at some stage, Moody said.
Event highlights include a fossil-digging pit, a treasure hunt, a dinosaur-themed play land, and the interactive dinosaurs.
Moody anticipated that a baby dinosaur called Dusty would be among children’s favourites.
‘‘He is really, really cute. You can actually teach him tricks. You can pat him, teach him to walk, give him a scratch and he’ll growl.
‘‘He is quite a complicated little toy.’’
Guests can also watch a pair of dinosaurs fighting each other. ‘‘They all do something.’’ From the long-necked brontosaurus to the velociraptor, there’ll be 30 different interactive dinosaurs on show.
And it was designed for all ages, Moody said.
‘‘[The dinosaurs] are not intended to be really scary. They are lifelike in the sense that they’ve got really good detail.’’
The setting is designed to feel like walking through a real jungle full of extinct creatures.
The owner of the company organising the event, Flaming Phoenix – which owns Zirka Circus – was based in Hamilton, Moody said.
‘‘For [the owner], Hamilton is always going to be home and a special place. So we wanted to launch it here first.’’