Dinosaurs have arrived in Dunedin a week early — at the Otago Museum, that is.
They will stay for the next four months for the "Dinosaur rEvolution" exhibition, which opens today.
The early start was because the museum had to plan for the worst-case scenario, as Covid-19 and border closures resulted in many unknowns.
Exhibition and creative services officer Shanaya Allan said a team from Gondwana Studios in Australia, which would have flown over for the installation, was not able to.
However, an in-house team of 10 people, with help from Gondwana Studios through email and Zoom calls, managed to pull it off by noon yesterday.
It was not without five days of hard work and long nights.
"To see [the dinosaurs] all out in the gallery, it is pretty spectacular," Ms Allan said.
The four animatronic dinosaurs were the stars of the show.
"Kids are either going to love them or hate them — they are a bit scary," she said.
Production and projects officer Garry Gibson spent last week in Waikato helping to take down the exhibition in order to guide the exhibitions team in Otago.
He was originally not so confident it would be ready for the start of the school holidays.
"It is a bit tricky ... there are huge animatronics, but the really tough thing was putting the skeletons together.
"Everyone got together and made it happen," he said.
Communications director Kate Oktay said the museum was conscious that families would have had a difficult year due to the financial impacts of Covid-19 and worked to keep prices affordable, offering adults the children’s price.
Tickets are $10 for unlimited day entry or $25 for a four-month pass.
There would also be a range of dinosaur activities for families at the museum, as well as a Dino Day on October 3, and a Dino Disco on October 7.
