Looking for a place in Rarotonga where kids, parents and grandparents can all find something to love? In this episode, Normand Schafer of Far and Away Adventures.com (https://farandawayadventures.com/) visits the Punanga Nui Market and sits down with Mie, known to everyone as Mrs Q, one of the founders of the market.
It started small. It was hard at first to encourage the local mamas and papas to come and sell, and it took four or five years to really take off. Today the market has a brand new building, and it kept going through COVID with the support of its own people.
Mrs Q takes us back to the beginning. After the 1992 Pacific Arts Festival, when each country had its own hut for carving, weaving and crafts, a small group decided to keep the space alive. She had just returned from travelling around Australia with her art, got involved, and the market opened in 1993.
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Grandparents will appreciate the history too. Mrs Q remembers when tourism was modest and there were few tour buses, and how visitors returning after the COVID border closures brought the market back to life. Sharing that story with the kids while browsing the stalls turns a shopping stop into a small lesson in island life and resilience.
Her tip for visiting families: the market runs through the week, but Saturday is the biggest day, when locals and visitors gather together. It is a lively, easy outing that gives every generation a real taste of Cook Islands life.
For families, there is plenty to explore together: island food, coconuts, Asian dishes, colourful pareu and fresh flower ei, which Mrs Q calls the number one item. At her own stall she makes jewellery by hand from Northern Group shells and pearl shell, and sells local oils, including a gentle oil she says is good for little kids and monoi oil for the sun.
