Ōamaru children can take a step back in time this weekend, to walk with the dinosaurs.

The Amazing Dinosaur Discovery is on its first, and only, South Island tour, and has popped-up at Awamoa Park in south Ōamaru. 

Director Paul Johnson said 30 lifelike animatronic dinosaurs were available for children and adults of all ages to see up close, touch, and even ride-on. 

Parents and grandparents enjoyed it as much as the children, he said. It provided education as well as fun, and he thought it was the only one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

Other activities included fossil panning, face painting, bouncy castles and crafts. Each session was one and a half hours.

“It’s not a show. It’s very important people understand that. It’s a session where they can choose what they get to do. 

“We get a lot of people just sit down by a dinosaur and have a picnic with the chips. Lots of families do that.”

The Hamilton-based “pop-up theme park and education centre” was forced to close for two years, due Covid-19, and Paul said this would be a one-off opportunity for South Islanders to see it in their own backyards.

The Amazing Dinosaur Discovery under construction in Ōamaru's Awamoa Park on Thursday. PHOTO: Ashley Smyth

The dinosaurs were created in two areas in the world, where there was a predominance of fossil finds - North America and Northern China.

“Each dinosaur has been sculpted and created to scale from the fossils that have been found. So they’re not just a made up form and shape, they’ve actually been created from the fossils that have been excavated,” he said.

The brachiosaurus model was 10m high, and based on real fossils, but the biggest that had been discovered were more than twice that size, at 23m, Paul said.

“So it puts into perspective what was out there. And the exciting thing is that there’s still, I think last year, more excavations again of fossil footprints and remains, so they’re still in the earth underneath somewhere.”

Taking the dinosaurs on the road was “hard work” - it took about two and a half days to set up in each town, depending on the weather - but it was worth it to see the smiling faces of the children, Paul said.

“Oh God, they love it.

“What happens with kids is, they’ve read about them in the books, they’ve seen them on the television, but they’ve never been up close and personal like this - it completes that whole process for them really.

“Our smallest dinosaur, baby Dusty, it can see you, it can hear you, it can smell you and it responds to touch, so it’s a pretty special dinosaur.”

There were two sessions in Oamaru this Saturday (February 11) at 11am-12.30pm and 1-2.30pm, and two more at the same time on Sunday.

Next stop on the tour was Queenstown, before it went to Southland, the West Coast and then north to Nelson. 

It was best to book sessions by phoning 027 SEE DINO (733 3466) or online through Eventfinda, Paul said.