Long-time Cook Islands medical practitioner Dr Wolfgang Losacker has added another book to his collection called “Cruising in the South Seas a lecturer reminisces”.

Losacker, from Germany, has spent the last 25 years lecturing on cruise ships.

“I’m lecturing about the South Seas, about the pearls, about the fish, about the people, about the landscape, islands, whatever,” Losacker says.

He’s now compiled his lectures into a book which includes his favourite Pacific country - Cook Islands. 

Losacker arrived in the Cook Islands in 1981 but was locked out of the country when the borders shut due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He returned to Rarotonga four weeks ago. 

In the past Losacker was the Honorary Consul for Germany and he’s spent time on all of the country’s islands practicing as a doctor, often spending three months there at a time “in the old days” waiting for the next ship to pick him up.

Losacker’s collection includes a coffee table book with photographs from the Cook Islands and others about his travels through the Pacific.

In his latest book, Losacker talks about the places that make up the South Seas and includes some locations from the Cook Islands.

• Caleb Fotheringham

Here’s the extract on Suwarrow:

It’s not known who first discovered Suwarrow. Old foundation walls made of limestone and coral have been found which date from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, the era when Spanish galleons carried vast amounts of gold, silver, jewels and other Inca treasures from the west coast of South America across the Pacific Ocean on their way back to Spain. Some of these treasure ships were emptied of their booty by pirates, and their treasures buried on islands in the Pacific. The atoll Suwarrow in the Cook Isles archipelago was one such island - the ideal place, a legendary treasure island, being remote, not shown on old maps and having no residents. Some current day Polynesians believe they know where treasure might be found, and consider that a search with modern equipment would be promising. It is said that Suwarrow was discovered by Captain Lazarett, a Russian in 1814, and he named it after his ship, the Souworoff. In 1889 it was annexed by the Cook Isles, and came under British sovereignty. Today it is one of the last bird paradises of the world, and is recognised by organisations such as Birdlife International and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Staff from Te Ipukarea Society (the conservation body of The Cook Isles) seek to take care of all the birds who live and nest there. These number in excess of two hundred thousand and include a wide variety of seabirds: boobies, masked boobies, great and lesser frigatbirds, white terns, red-tailed tropicbirds, and a great many others. During the non-hurricane season from May to November a Cook Islander lives there as a bird warden, ensuring their wellbeing. He has also established a yacht-club there, since Suwarrow is a well-known and popular port of call for round-the-world sailors from all nations.