IMPOSING: A wood-cut dinosaur at the Hyde Park Village.
A large dinosaur has emerged at the Hyde Park Village in Te Horo.
The 4.7m high dinosaur, made out of wooden shapes, was created by qualified stair and joinery professional Andy Stuart.
"I've always wanted to make one."
And he noted the dinosaur was friendly.
"It eats sawdust for breakfast, lunch and dinner."
Hyde Park Village owner John Everiss was happy for the dinosaur to be positioned in the village.
"It's quite amazing," Mr Everiss said.
"A lot of work has gone into creating the dinosaur.
"People have been stopping here and taking photographs of it.
"Children are right into it."
Mr Everiss and wife Barbara took ownership of the village in February 2015 after knowing previous owners Selwyn and Ngaire Hyde through their connection with the Horowhenua Vintage Car Club.
"Ngaire said she wanted to sell it locally," Mr Everiss said.
The village, on 1.4 hectares, comprises a cafe, garden centre, hairdresser, gift shop, tufa rock shop, and a coffee and ice cream shack.
An American-inspired food cart springs into action on Thursdays Fridays and weekends.
There's a Flintstone's type car for people to sit as well as a 10sqm shack of memorabilia for people to have a look through.
Mr Everiss likes to park some of his fleet of Studebaker cars on the site, usually on Sundays, to create a bit of interest.
There is a place where people can get to know two tame goats, and four sheep, and there is an aviary housing canaries and cockatiels.
The contents of the well-known museum that the Hydes had assembled over many years were removed before the Everiss' took over.
The museum building, created out of Oregon wood, is now vacant but there is scope for the building to be transformed into a different enterprise if some much needed building work is carried out.
Mr Everiss said the village had something for everyone and hoped more people would visit it.
