Tom Neale was born in Wellington, New Zealand, but his family soon moved to Greymouth, where his father became paymaster for the state coal mines. Eventually the family settled in Timaru. At 18 Tom signed on as an apprentice engineer in the New Zealand Navy, where he spent four years before buying himself out in order to wander among the South Pacific islands, clearing bush, fishing and preparing copra. He later settled on Moorea, where he learned to speak Taihitian. In 1943 he accepted a job as store-keeper in the Cook Islands, and from there he sailed to Suwarrow.