The Punanga Nui market is opposite the liquor bond store and next to the harbour, they have activity with fresh vegetables there almost everyday but the big market day is Saturday. We had seen the market getting underway when we arrived last week and this was our opportunity to check it out, up and out by 8:30 we headed into town to take a squizz. I think the market starts around 6am and seemed to wind up around midday, it was certainly well underway when we arrived, and we both commented that we shouldn’t have had breakfast we should have eaten at the market stalls as the smell of all manner of food cooking wafted around us. As well as this street food there was a good selection of fresh local produce, drinking coconuts, arts, jewelry, carvings, handicrafts, pareus, T-shirts, CDs with a Cook Islands cultural group performing live on the round stage.
One of those vans with the coffee machine set up in the back making it a mobile coffee shop was at one end of the market serving coffee from locally grown coffee beans, this was extremely good, the market’s colorful with a great atmosphere, it’s definitely worth the visit.
Tomorrow the crowd from New Zealand were turning up and in Rarotonga you can’t buy booze on Sunday, this made a beer run to the wholesaler an urgent necessity. We figured we couldn’t carry the beer cases and girls on the scooter at the same time, and so we had to make the dreadful decision to ditch the girls. We took them to the “What Ever Bar”, a ramshackle first floor outdoor bar with a very pleasant disposition and a great lagoon view. By the time we arrived, it was time for drinks and a Whatever Burger. We left the girls to have Whatever Cocktails while we headed off towards the wholesalers to complete the beer run.
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