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.
Bellamy's Gallery Macandrew Bay.
Until January 31: Manu Berry, "Shadowlands".
Blue Oyster Gallery, basement, Moray Chambers, 30 Moray Pl.
Ends today: Elise O'Neill and Aroha Novak's "Expensive Rubbish" and Elspeth Fougere "Here, There and Everywhere (We are a Community of Cells)".
Brett McDowell Gallery, 5 Dowling St.
"Six spiromorphs", by Barry Brickell.
Central Stories Museum and Art Gallery, 21 Centennial Ave, Alexandra.
Open 10am-4pm.
Until January 16: "People at Work and Play" photographic competition on display.
Until January 24: Photographs by Olwynne Oliver and jewellery by Sonia Keogh.
De Beer Gallery, Special Collections, 1st floor, Central University Library.
Until January 29: "Heresy, Sedition, Obscenity: The Book Challenged".
Dunedin City Library, 230 Moray Pl, Reed Gallery, third floor.
Until February 8: "Rogues Gallery: the Villains of Charles Dickens". Meet the unsavoury characters that are part of the Dickensian charm. Free.
Dunedin Public Art Gallery, the Octagon.
"Beloved: Works from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery".
Until February 28: Cho Duck Hyun, "Dark Water: the Antipodes Project". An installation produced by South Korean artist Cho Duck Hyun in Auckland this year, this work continues this artist's interest in social and cultural history.
Ongoing: "Poseur". Portraits from the gallery's collection.
Until February: Bill Culbert and Ralph Hotere: "P. R. O. P".
Until February: "Tom Kreisler" - works spanning a 30-year period.
Until January: David Clegg: "Rerecordings 2006-2009." Recordings the artist made in Dunedin alongside previous recordings made in Chile in 2006.
Until January: "Miguel Angel Rios". Works by New York- and Mexico City-based artist Miguel Angel Rios.
Until March 2010: Ronnie van Hout "Rear Window".
Until May 2010: Taryn Simon: "An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar".
From Saturday until January 31: "A World with Chocolate".
Eastern Southland Gallery, Gore.
Until January 24: Russell Beck: "Forces of Land". A survey exhibition spanning more than 40 years of sculpture and carving.
Gallery at Glenfalloch, Glenfalloch Gardens.
Contemporary works by six peninsula artists.
The Gateway Gallery, 27 Ross Pl, Lawrence.
Arty Collection: group show.
Open Thursday-Monday.
Harris Smith Art, 86-88 Bond St.
Paintings by Jeffrey Harris, sculptures by Nicole Page-Smith.
Open Monday-Saturday, 1pm-2pm, or by appointment.
Heartland World Heritage Hotel, Haast Junction.
Until January 16. "Stranded", an exhibition of prints and etchings by Liz Hawker and photographs by Gilbert van Reenen about Davey Louston's sealing gang, stranded on the Open Bay Islands from 1810-1814.
Hocken Gallery, cnr Anzac Ave and Parry St.
Until February 20: "On Vacation: A History of Holidaying in Southern New Zealand".
Hullabaloo Art Space, Melmore Tce, Old Cromwell historic precinct.
Until January 16: "Keeping the Bees", by Jane Armour.
From Sunday until February 6: "Holy Cow", drawings and paintings by Liz Rowe.
Jetty St Studio Art Gallery, at 10 Jetty St.
"A Blot on the Landscape", paintings by Elizabeth Manson.
Lakes District Museum, Arrowtown.
Until February 28: "Showing Favourites". Historical and contemporary art from local private collections.
Milford Galleries, Dunedin, 18 Dowling St.
Until January 27: Summer Show: including artists J. S. Parker, Garry Currin and Nigel Brown.
Glass works by Ann Robinson and ceramic works by Christine Thacker.
Milford Galleries, Queenstown.
Until February 17: "Summer Show": paintings, ceramics and glass works; and "Works on Paper:" Dick Frizzell, Penny Stotter, Julie Ross.
North Otago Museum, 60 Thames St, Oamaru.
Until May: "Sweat and Starch": textiles from the museum's collections.
Otago Art Society, in the OAS gallery at Dunedin Railway Station, 1st floor, open daily.
Until January 31: "Pick n Mix" Christmas exhibition.
Otago Museum, 419 Great King St.
Until January 24: "Otago Wildlife Photography Exhibition", 1877 Gallery, level 1.
Until May 23: "Charles Darwin: Evolutionary Thinking", Nature Galleries, level 3, free.
Until April 19: "Charles Brasch: A great good man", People of the World Gallery, level 2.
Until May 2010: "Dinosaur Eggs and Babies", Special Exhibitions Gallery, level 1.
Otago Settlers Museum, 31 Queens Gardens.
Ongoing: "Across the Ocean Waves", interactive exhibition about Otago immigration in the age of sail.
Until June: "Willkommen to Dunedin: A History of German-speaking People in Otago".
Until February 28: "Square and Compasses: Freemasonry in New Zealand." Shares the history and traditions of Freemasonry.
Until February 28: "Built to Last: Engineering in Otago". Examines more than 150 years of engineering achievement in Otago - the development of telecommunications and transportation networks, water and wastewater systems, mining industries, electricity supplies, buildings, bridges and more.
Owaka Museum, 10 Campbell St, Owaka.
"Catlins Bound": watercolours by Fergus Sutherland.
Renaissance Gallery and Sculpture Garden, corner Junction Rd and Matai St, Ravensbourne.
Until February 24: "Summer Show". A group show of work by 20 artists.
Open: Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays noon-5pm.
South Seas Gallery, 1088 Brighton Rd, Brighton.
Until February 27: "New Work", recent paintings by Ollie Crooks.
Stuart St Potters Co-operative, 14 Lower Stuart St.
Until January 17: Nicole Kolig & Dawn Palmer.
Taieri Gallery, 123 Gordon Rd, Mosgiel.
Until February: works by photographic artist Murray Crawford.
Temple Gallery, 29 Moray Pl, Dunedin.
"Every painting is a way of saying goodbye", works by women artists, including Michaela Cox, Lynda Cullen, Sarah Dolby, Mary McFarlane, Mirana Parkes, Seraphine Pick, and Heather Straka.
