December | 2017 | Words and Light

Archive for December, 2017

Analog: Hamilton Gardens, New Zealand

Posted in Analog, Personal, Photography, Travel, tagged hamilton gardens, new zealand, where the stars are strange on December 21, 2017| Leave a Comment »

When we found ourselves with some free time between cave tours and our Hobbiton Movie Set evening banquet tour, we found ourselves at the Hamilton Gardens.

Built on the remains of a rubbish dump, the Hamilton Gardens is a collection of 21 gardens themed by different varieties of architectures, lifestyles and traditions. It’s technically not a botanical garden, but it might just be one of my favorite gardens I’ve ever visited. Each garden led to another, or sometimes several. After spending a couple hours underground touring the Waitomo Glowworm Caves and the Ruakuri Cave, it was lovely to explore this maze of green growth.

A selection of these photos can be purchased as prints at prints.christhedunn.com.

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Analog: On the street where they lived

Posted in Analog, Personal, Photography, Travel on December 6, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Growing up, I took only a mild interest in my family’s history. As second-generation Chinese-Americans, my brothers and I knew the basics of how our parents’ parents had carved out their space in the U.S., but we weren’t pressured too hard to go into engineering, finance or law. (There was some pressure, but I did become a journalist and my parents still love me.) We didn’t speak Chinese at home, but my mom passed on the important lessons — remove your shoes when you enter a home, top off others’ teacups before refilling your own, education comes first — and we still got red envelopes on Lunar New Year.

But over the past couple of years, I’ve begun asserting my identity as a Chinese-American. Maybe it’s because I see my young niece and nephew and I wonder how I’ll pass on my heritage to my rhetorical children. Maybe it’s because I regret the error of my flippant childhood/adolescent/young adult attempts at pretending — or hoping — I wasn’t any different than the people I went to school with. Maybe it’s because I know my parents, uncles and one remaining grandparent aren’t getting any younger and there remain untold stories that I want to hear, but I don’t know enough to ask.

Perhaps it’s because I have a belatedly newfound appreciation for the challenges and struggles immigrants face, no matter when they came to the U.S., and I am proud of what my family has accomplished in spite of the obstacles that were strewn across their paths.

So, lately, I’ve taken a greater interest in my family’s history. A couple months ago, I got to join my grandmother on the most personal, once-in-a-lifetime trip I can imagine taking. When I haven’t been working on my print shop or moving across town or traveling once again, I’ve been culling and editing the film I shot in China with my grandmother. I finally finished going through it last night. And I apologize if this just makes me a massive jerk, but there are a few more things I need to do before I can share the film here or anywhere.

But I’m really excited.

So, in the meantime, I’m just going to share a couple photos I took in May of my dad’s home in San Francisco Chinatown, where he and my grandparents and uncle lived when they first came to the States in the 1960s.

I’m sorry I’m a jerk.

The film will come.

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Analog: California redwoods in Whakarewarewa Forest, New Zealand

Posted in Analog, Personal, Photography, Travel, tagged new zealand, rotorua, where the stars are strange on December 5, 2017| Leave a Comment »

When we travel abroad, we’re fascinated by the familiar. For Jeff, this often means fast food chains with a “local” twist; for me, plant life that I didn’t expect to encounter on another continent.

Such as California redwood trees.

If you drive about 5-10 minutes out of the city of Rotorua in New Zealand’s South Island, past some homes and warehouses and auto shops, you’ll come to Whakarewarewa Forest. There’s a visitors center, an extensive web of trails in constant use by runners, walkers, cyclists and horseback riders… and a stand of California redwoods.

Among other native and exotic plant life, as well.

We visited Whakarewarewa in the late afternoon, as the trails swelled with after-work users. But no matter how long we had to wait, on occasion, for the trails to clear enough for us to get people-less photos, the forest never felt crowded.

What a beautiful, and priceless, resource.