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The atoll of Suwarrow is one of the best known in the Cook Islands due to a prolonged visit by one man: New Zealand author and recluse Tom Neale. His six years as a hermit on Suwarrow yielded the South Seas classic, An Island to Oneself. Neale's room is still furnished just as it was when he lived there. Visiting yachties record their stay in the logbook in Neale's room. Pearl divers from Manihiki also visit occasionally.
Suwarrow is especially popular among yachties because it's one of the few atolls in the northern Cooks with an accessible lagoon. Although the lagoon is large, the islands of Suwarrow are very small and low-lying. Hurricanes have sent waves sweeping right across even the highest of the islands and in 1942 author Robert Dean Frisbie and his group survived by tying themselves to trees.
Today the island is populated only be a caretaker and his family. The only way to get there is on the extremely infrequent shipping services, or by private yacht.
(Wed Nov 13, 2002 - 3:08:42 pm)
(Wed Nov 13, 2002 - 3:28:22 pm)