Chanelling your inner Dinosaur
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’ll never look at birds the same way again. Who knew? Sixtysix million years ago, they were dinosaurs.
The little Sparrow hopping around my balcony is actually the most successful animal that ever existed. Smart enough to evolve through a catastrophic natural event that killed the big dinosaurs and still populate the world today. Palaeontologists now know that T Rex was fully feathered and not the scaly creature we imagined. Which is why, in a nod to their ancestors, you’ll find two Rainbow Lorikeets greeting you when you visit The Dinosaur House in Raetihi.
Realising the dream The Dinosaur House is a family business run by Ian and Sarah Moore and their two children, out of a 1922 heritage building they found on TradeMe. “Locals were intrigued about what was to become of the landmark property, asking if we were going to run a BnB or hospitality venue,” Ian says. “It took us 10 years to get the museum set up, and the end result came as a big surprise.” Until two and a half years ago, Ian had been working as an animator at TV3 while sourcing and finding Dinosaur memorabilia from all over the world. Just before the first COVID lockdown, the doors opened at New Zealand’s first Dinosaur Museum. “I figured if people would divert off the beaten track to see Fred and Myrtle Flutey’s Shell House in a small town down south, they’d surely
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