Epic exhibition opens this weekend at Waikato Museum
8 April 2024
School holidays will start with a roar at Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga O Waikato as Six Extinctions opens to the public on Friday 12 April, revealing a life-sized cast of the largest Tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered.
The opening of this new exhibition will be celebrated with a public event from 10am on Saturday 13 April featuring free face painting, entertaining characters, and more than 100 spot prizes.
“We are counting down to the opening of Six Extinctions and welcoming our visitors for the school holiday break. People have been snapping up tickets online and behind the scenes, it’s a flurry of finishing touches,” said Liz Cotton, Director Museum and Arts.
“We’re thrilled that Six Extinctions is arriving here in Kirikiriroa Hamilton with even more features than other stops on its tour, from a prehistoric rhinoceros skull replica to an interactive dig pit where kids can have a go at being palaeontologists.”
“Six Extinctions is open from this Friday and on Saturday morning we’re doing a special celebration. Our team has lots of prizes to give away so we’re hoping people will arrive wearing their favourite dinosaur-themed outfits!”
With a suitably grand scale, Six Extinctions fills two floors of the building and is one of the biggest exhibitions ever undertaken by Waikato Museum. The exhibition takes visitors on a journey through 485 million years, exploring mass extinctions events that have shaped life on Earth including the current climate crisis.
Exclusively at the opening event on Saturday 13 April, visitors can enjoy the special bonus of an appearance by Dinosaur Darren and Rista the Raptor Handler from Legends Unleashed Dinosaurs Aotearoa. They will be sharing their interactive storytelling about Aotearoa New Zealand’s prehistoric origins, Maaori maatauranga (knowledge), and recent jaw-dropping discoveries.
Six Extinctions is produced by Australia’s Gondwana Studios. It is open at Waikato Museum for an extended period from 12 April to 21 July 2024, which covers the school holidays in both April and July. Tickets are on sale now for the entire exhibition season and can be purchased online through the Museum’s website: waikatomuseum.co.nz/six
Please note
For te reo Maaori, Waikato Museum uses double vowels (uu) in place of vowels with a macron (ū) to represent a long vowel sound. This spelling approach is the preference of tangata whenua in Hamilton Kirikiriroa and Waikato iwi for te reo Maaori words. Artists’ titles are shown in their original form.