Punanga Nui Market, Avarua: Saturday morning on Rarotonga
Punanga Nui is the market on the Avarua waterfront, and Saturday morning is when the whole island seems to pass through it. It is the most reliable place to eat well and cheaply, buy something made locally rather than imported, and get a sense of Rarotonga that a resort will not give you.
What is there
Produce from local growers — paw paw, bananas, taro, whatever is in season. Cooked food from a row of stalls: fish, curries, raw fish in coconut cream, doughnuts. Crafts, carving, pareu, shell and pearl work. Usually music, and usually someone selling coconuts opened in front of you.
Timing
This is a morning market. Stalls are set up early, the food stalls do their trade over breakfast and into the late morning, and by early afternoon it is packing up. Arriving at midday means seeing the tail end of it.
Practical notes
- Bring cash in small notes. Some stalls take cards; plenty do not.
- Parking near the market fills up. It is walkable from most of central Avarua.
- Black pearls are sold here and vary enormously in quality and price. If you are spending real money, it is worth understanding what you are looking at first.
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