Pacific Expeditions Ltd is offering a tour of "five extremely remote islands," in the Cook Islands chain. One of these is Suwarrow (shown in photo above. More here), the island that Tom Neale lived on alone for many years. I would love to take this trip.
RAKAHANGA
There are few written accounts of life on Rakahanga. An Englishman,
Julian Dashwood, who went there for a year in the early 1930s,
reported that food was frequently a problem since it consisted
chiefly of coconuts and fish. In his book which he wrote under the
nom-de-plume of Julian Hillas, "South Seas Paradise" he said:"I spent a year on Rakahanga and put on 18 pounds, which I lost
again within six months of leaving. I developed a marvellous
appetite and have never felt better than I did during that period."He attributed this mainly to the fish and coconuts which formed 80
per cent of his diet, as well as a complete absence of worry in any
form. He wrote in 1964:"Looking back over nearly 30 years, I still give Rakahanga top
rating. If there are places left where a man can grow old
contentedly, it is on some such quiet, drowsy atoll, where today is
forever and tomorrow never comes; where men live and die, feast and
sorrow, while the winds and the waves play over wet sands and
gleaming reefs."
