 Visitors learn about local history and traditions at the Cook Islands Cultural Village. (Right) Rarotonga is small in size but it offers numerous opportunities for big adventures. (Far Right) A picture perfect Cook Islands sunset provides a romantic backdrop to an evening stroll. |
  Long before the sun starts shinning over the largest isle in the tiny Cook Islands, energetic shopkeepers and enthusiastic stall owners are busy preparing for the big event of the week, the Saturday Punanga Nui Market. Shoppers living in and around and even far beyond Avarua, the administrative centre of Rarotonga, the biggest and most populated of the 15 islands in the group start arriving at Punanga Nui, or the “place of plenty” as it translates into English, by 6 or 7 AM.
Locals come to browse and buy and chat with friends they may have telephoned that morning but haven’t seen for a week or maybe longer. Tourists also come to browse and buy and photograph a visitor friendly market. Zigzagging from one stall to the next I came across a bounty of fresh fruits, carvings of South Seas scenes, bright beachwear, CDs and cassettes of island music, highly prized lack of pearls and plenty of island people
Though there are more local people at the market, ironically, there are far more tourists visiting the Cook Islands than there are resident Cook Islanders. Flanked by the Kingdom of Tonga and the Samoas to the west and Tahiti and the islands of French Polynesia to the east and about four hours by Air New Zealand jet northeast of Auckland, there are only around 14,000 people living in the island group.
An illustrated feature on Rarotonga can be written on assignment from 1000 to 2000 words, depending upon editorial requirements. A short ‘sidebar’ or a dedicated feature can be written on the lagoon encircled island of Aitutaki.
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