Pop-up shop - Plesiosaur & The Lee fossil collection - a podcast by Whitestone Geopark

Geopark Sasha – Pop-up shop

Radio announcer: Time to talk Geopark once again joined by the Geoeducator Sasha Morriss. Sasha, what are we talking about this week?

geoeducator: Yeah, hi. Today we're gonna be talking about our pop-up shop. So it's in number 27 Thames Street in Oamaru. We just opened last Monday. So we're going to be open Monday through Friday, 12:30 through to 4:30.

Radio announcer: Okay. So what can people see in the pop-up shop.

geoeducator: Right, so first of all, when you approach the shop, you'll notice that it's all been painted in the Waitaki Whitestone colors. And there is a little blue pinguin painted in the entrance that you can have a look at and you just get an idea of the, you know, the size if you've not seen one in person. And next to it as a giant penguin that has been found up near Duntroon. And there's also a species of it found up at the back of Waimate as well. So people can have a go at measuring themselves and just seeing, you know, how they measure up next to a long extinct penguin. So these guys stood about 1.3 meters high and I think they're up to about 80 kg I think it was - up around there. So though they were pretty good size.

Radio announcer: But we don't have any as large as that at the moment.

geoeducator: No, that's right. They've all long gone. So you'll come into the shop and you'll see right down the left hand wall, a massive plesiosaur. So some of you may be aware that a plesiosaur was recovered a number of years ago down near Shag Point from the siltstones down there. You can go and see that at the Otago Museum it's around about seven meters long, really impressive. The most complete plesiosaur record actually in New Zealand. And the plesiosaur actually died out along with a lot of animals and plants, including famous dinosaurs round about 65 million years ago - there was a mass extinction, and the plesiosaur was amongst those that were lost. So it's pretty special to have remnants of that accessible for people to look at. So come and have a look at the picture there. Now starting from the school holidays we're planning on having Oamaru Rocks having a station in the pop-up shop so people can come along and paint on a little rock, learn a little bit about how the greywacke rocks, which are the rocks people paint on - how they're formed. And, you know, you may or may not choose to do a Geopark type of picture on your rock. You're free to take that away with you if you want to or hide it somewhere. And we've got lots of information charts so come and have a look at how the Waitaki District fits into the story of Zealandia and how Zealandia was formed. We've also got a really important fossil collection on display that was found down off Beach Road here. It was one of the most important fossil collections to have been recovered in a very long time in New Zealand. And just looking at these fossils, it's hard not to be kind of blown away, by the age of them - they are millions and millions of years old. And yet they look like shells that you could walk along and find off the beach today. So I encourage people to come in and have a wee look at those. So it's just a great place to learn about the formation of Zealandia. And also we can guide you forward and what you can go and see out in the Geopark itself. Lisa will be there, I'll be there occasionally, and we've got a couple other people that will also be manning the shop.

Radio announcer: Okay. So what hours is it open?

geoeducator: So it's going to be open 12:30 to 4:30 during the week.

Radio announcer: Okay. That's cool. Thanks, Sasha. We'll catch up with again next week.

geoeducator: That's Great Dan. Thank you.

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