Navigation for An Indescribable Beauty

An Indescribable Beauty

A young German writes letters home to his mother after immigrating to Wellington in 1859.

Wellington, 1859, and a young German immigrant called Friedrich August Krull writes a series of letters home to his mother about his new life in a far-flung country. More than century later, those letters have been collected in a new book An Indescribable Beauty, published by Awa Press. The letters capture a country on the cusp of change, and describe a New Zealand we would struggle to recognise today.

This four-part documentary series is produced by Justin Gregory and features Adrian Hollay, Gavin McLean, James Bade and Marama Muru-Janning.

Related audio: Publisher Mary Varnham talks about An Indescribable Beauty on Nine to Noon

Cover of An Indescribable Beauty; Friedrich Krull
Fredrich Krull in uniform of Consul for the German Empire. He was appointed in 1871 aged 36. This photo is from the collection of Whanganui Regional Museum.