Auckland Botanic Gardens plant curators have unearthed what are thought to be prehistoric dinosaur eggs in the Gondwana Forest section of the expansive garden in Manurewa.
“Our Gondwana Forest contains the descendants of plants that dinosaurs would have roamed among at the time New Zealand was part of the Gondwana supercontinent 200 million years ago.
“I can’t believe we’ve been able to find such clear evidence of these creatures so close to our modern city,” says Auckland Botanic Gardens Manager Jack Hobbs.
In fact, the 'dinosaur eggs' are part of an innovative, larger-than-life dinosaur performance and display featuring a raptor, a crested therapod and a towering Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Brought to life by a team of skilled performers, the prehistoric stars of ‘Dinosaurs in the Gardens’ are so extraordinarily realistic you may feel the urge to run and hide – but don’t, because you won’t want to miss a minute of this entertaining and educational live show in the Gondwana Forest.
“Visitors will be able to interact with these amazingly life-like dinosaurs presented in a theatrical performance,” says Jack.
“We will also have a 'dinosaur ranger' on hand to provide information about the Gondwana habitat so that children can imagine life as it was when these giant beasts roamed the earth.”
Free entry and activities
The dinosaur encounters are free and will run on weekends at the Auckland Botanic Gardens from 19 November 2016 until 5 February 2017, except for a short break over Christmas.
“We expect it to be a very popular holiday attraction and we urge Aucklanders and visitors to pace themselves and try coming after the first rush. We’ll have three shows a day – at 10.30am, 1.30pm and 3pm – so as many people as possible get to enjoy our dinosaur friends,” says Jack.
Free activities for children, including digging for fossils, will also take place in the visitor centre, where there will be a display of fossils, prehistoric plants and reproduction dinosaur bones.
Visitors are encouraged to bring some spare change for activities in the Dinosaur Zone and to buy their own dinosaur to take home.
