Long-time Cook Islands medical practitioner Dr Wolfgang Losacker is a specialist in tropical medicine, internal medicine and cardiology. He is a consultant at the Rarotonga Hospital and runs a private practice in Arorangi. In his spare time he publishes his own style of Cook Islands travel books and takes photographs to illustrate these colourful books.
When the German Cruise Ships travel to the
South Seas, Wolfgang often works as a lecturer on the ships between Sydney and
Lima to explain all the history, culture and attractions of the Polynesian
people and islands to passengers.
As the past Honorary Consul for Germany he
still helps out German nationals with all sort of problems.
Wolfgang is something of an all-round living legend in the Cooks!
“As a doctor, you are really needed here,”
Wolfgang said of the Cook Islands, his chosen home for the past thirty-three
years.
His other passions are photography and
storytelling, which led to the publication of the hardcover, coffee table
classic,
South Seas – Cook Islands,
first published in 1997 in English and German, now in its third print.
This pictorial book, packed with 144
engaging and timeless photographs with accompanying words, covers many of the
qualities of Cook Islands life from its beautiful atolls and lagoons, to the
welcoming Polynesian families, the festivals, the wildlife … the list goes on.
Many of the photographs were taken whilst Wolfgang visited the outer islands as
a doctor.
The
grandson of a medical doctor in Germany and son of a journalist, writer,
publisher and photographer, his family would be pleased that Wolfgang has
kept up many of his family traditions. To date, he has written nine books, six
of them about the Cook Islands.
Recently, Wolfgang held an historic photographic exhibition featuring twenty selected Cook Islands images in the BCA Gallery in Avarua’s 166 year-old Beachcomer building. Many of the images exhibited were from his book South Seas – Cook Islands.
There are a limited number of collector copies of South Seas – Cook Islands and his short story book South Seas, My Stories available from the BCA Gallery and the Bounty Bookshop in Rarotonga; or, email Dr Losacker on drwolf@oyster.net.ck
