Jurassic Creatures

As the queue inched closer to the entrance of the Jurassic Creatures exhibition at Wrest Point in Hobart, both our dino-loving boys were buzzing with excitement.

But as we approached the first life-like animatronic dinosaur on display Hudson, 6, quickly changed his tune and decided he was terrified and immediately demanded to go home.

Fortunately his terror was short-lived and within a few minutes he and his younger brother Archer, almost 4, were happily posing with perhaps the scariest of all the exhibits, the mighty T-Rex!

We were lucky enough to be guests at the opening night session – it was a beautiful sunny evening and I loved watching how the exhibition changed as the sky grew darker.

We spent a solid couple of hours exploring the Wrest Point lawns, a far more scenic and atmospheric venue than previous dinosaur exhibitions we’ve been to indoors. The dinosaur sounds don’t seem quite as scary outdoors either.

Highlights for the boys were digging for fossils, touching a triceratops, testing out the jumping castles and going home with a flashing disco sword each and some dinosaur puzzles.

I liked that almost all activities were included in our ticket price – including the three different jumping castles, the mini dinosaur carousel, the puzzle making, the dinosaur dig and the drawing activities. And of course the lights and sounds of the large animatronic dinosaurs kept the boys entertained for a significant portion of our timeslot. The sideshow games and food vans were an extra cost and be warned not all have card facilities so make sure you take cash – we had to go in search of an ATM.

The boys have not stopped talking about their up-close encounters with their favourite dinosaurs and have already asked when the dinosaurs will be coming back to Hobart.