The market in Auki is the commercial and social heart of the provincial capital, and the best single place to take the pulse of Malaitan daily life. Vendors set out fresh fish from the night's catch, piles of root vegetables and greens, betel nut wrapped in pepper leaves, and strings of shell money for sale alongside plastic goods and trade store imports. The fish market section is particularly lively in the early morning, when outrigger canoes arrive from nearby villages.
Shell money — tafuliae, the finely ground disc-bead currency unique to Malaita — sometimes changes hands here in the ordinary course of commerce, which is unusual in the Solomons. Watching it being counted and exchanged is a reminder that this is not a museum exhibit but a living economic system. The market runs daily but is busiest on weekdays; Sunday trade is limited.
The market area around the waterfront is also a useful place to find transport connections — boats and canoes heading along the coast often depart from or near the main jetty.