The Guide: What's on this week

This week's highlight — Egg-citing times: Otago Museum is laying on a "Dino Bash" on Saturday in conjunction with its "Dinosaur Eggs and Babies" exhibition.

The bash includes a host of prehistoric challenges, as well as storytelling, face painting and bouncing. It starts at 10am and runs through to 5pm.

The exhibition includes real dinosaur bones, as well as authentic cast specimens, reconstructed nests and Dino eggs for the digging.

Strings attached: The New Zealand Trio plays at Queenstown's St Peter's Anglican Church on Saturday, at 8pm, as part of the violin summer school Festival of Chamber Music.

The programme includes Haydn, Chen Yi's Tibetan Tunes and Stuart Greenbaum's 800 Hundred Million Heartbeats.

 

• Gigs

Alibi, the Octagon.
Fridays, from 10.30pm: Hemi and Bede.

Chicks Hotel, Port Chalmers.
Tonight, 9pm: Flying Scribble.

Dunedin Musicians Club, 12 Manse St.
Thursdays, 5pm: open mike night.

Isis Lounge, 68 Princes St.
Every Wednesday, 8pm: I Jazz.
Every Thursday: Oxo Cubans jam night, from 8pm.
Every Friday, 8pm: Oxo Cubans, party night.

Pequeno, the Savoy.
Thursdays: Mojaz, lounge music from 8pm.

Ra Café and Bar, 21 the Octagon.
Tonight, 7pm: Antz & Luke.
Friday, 7pm: Jimmy Higgs; 10pm: DJ Slideshow.
Saturday, 10.30pm: DJ D-Fyance
Wednesdays: B-Shed, from 7pm.

Robbie Burns Pub, 374 George St.
Thursdays: Calder Prescott Jazz Quartet, 8.30pm.

Rosie's Bar, Victoria Hotel.
Thursdays, 9pm: open mike night. Gear provided.

Swell, St Clair Esplanade.
Friday, 6pm: Calder Prescott; Saturday, 3pm: Live Jazz with Trevor Coleman and Paul Young; Sunday, 3pm: I. Jazz

• Family fun

Dunedin Public Art Gallery, the Octagon.
From December 26 until January 31: "A World with Chocolate" - Summer chocolate hunt. Otago Museum, 419 Great King St.
Explorer backpacks for 7-12-year-olds (free).
Guided tours daily at 11.30am and 3.30pm. Meet at the information desk.
Weekends, 10.30am and 2pm, atrium level 1: children's creative activities.
Weekends during January, 11.30am: "Bring Back the Butterflies". We've planted a beautiful outdoor butterfly garden full of host plants and nectar plants to attract butterflies. Find out how to create your own butterfly garden and why it is so important to encourage wild butterflies to our gardens. Meet at the information desk, free.
Daily during school holidays, 2.30pm, search centre: Origami: The Art of Folding Paper.
Daily during school holidays: Tooth Sleuth question trail. Track down all the teeth-related collections in the museum. Solve the fossilised mystery and collect your prize. Collect a trail from the Search Centre desk, free.
Daily during school holidays, 2.30pm, Search Centre: Bonsai For Beginners.
Today and Tuesday, 2.15pm, Atrium Level 1: "Freaky Numbers" - Discover the mystery in the numbers all around us with a taste of pi, omega, fractals and more.
Saturday, on the Otago Museum Reserve, 10am: Dino Bash, dinosaur-related activities until 5pm.
Sunday, 2.15pm, Atrium level 1: Freaky Summer Science Show.

Visitor Information Centre, Octagon.
Daily, 11am: Walk Dunedin, inner-city walking tours. Meet at the visitor centre.

• Music and performance

Otago Museum, 419 Great King St.
Lunchtime music every Friday and Saturday, noon.
Friday: Alexey Medvedev; Saturday: Merryn Gill.

St Peter's Church, 2 Church St, Queenstown.
Saturday, 8pm: NZ Trio, chamber music ensemble.

• Talks and films

Dunedin Public Art Gallery, the Octagon.
Sundays, 1.30pm and Wednesdays, 12.30pm: Free guided tours of "Beloved: Works from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery". An overview of some of the favourite and most treasured works in the collection.
Sunday, 3pm: Film: "Sir Joshua Reynolds", a commanding figure of eighteenth-century British art.

Otago Museum, 419 Great King St.
Free daily talks, 2pm.
Special exhibition gallery free talk daily at 4.30pm: "Charles Darwin: Evolutionary Thinking".
Daily gallery talks for January: Monday: The Mysterious Rat King; Tuesday: Women of Polynesia; Wednesday: The Dunedin Volcano; Thursday: Kiribati Warrior; Friday: KT Extinction; Saturday: Early Otago Museum History; Sunday: The Venus de Milo.

Owaka Museum, 10 Campbell Street, Owaka.
Friday, 7.30pm: Talk by Mike McPhee on the New Zealand coastal shipping scene of the mid 19th Century.

• Exhibitions

Aigantighe Art Gallery, 49 Wai-iti Rd, Timaru.
Until February 24: "Geo-morph", by Andrew Craig.
Until February 28: " Steal", by Sam Mahon.

Archives New Zealand, 556 George St, Dunedin.
Until January 22, "Built to Last: Five Otago Engineering Feats", archives relating to engineering sites and structures which have been milestones in New Zealand's engineering history. 9.30am-5pm.

Art Upstairs, corner Ardmore and Helwick Sts, Wanaka.
Paintings by Bill Burke, John Thom, Nigel Wilson, Graham Brinsley, sculptures by Chris Meder and images on Zincalume by Susan Mason.

Bannockburn Café and Store, Bannockburn.
Until December 31: works by Simon Morrison-Deaker.