A GIRLS’ WEEKEND ALWAYS INCLUDES A STOP AT EUMUNDI
Great marketplace where all your shopping wishes come true
AGIRLS’ weekend in Noosa has become a ritual for me and my friends as we head towards the festive season. And Eumundi Markets on a Saturday morning is always the first stop on the itinerary. Leaving home at the southern end of the Coast no later than 7am for the 30 to 45-minute drive, we have barely left the carpark when the coffee aromas hit us and draw us to the nearest barista. With our order in hand (and quite possibly an avocado toast or pastry, too), we sit down at one of the picnic-table settings provided. The sound of music has already started filling the air as the girlfriends catch up on the gossip and contemplate what our purchases might be for the morning. Resortwear for the upcoming trip? A piece of jewellery for daughters’ Christmas presents? Leather sandals? Kitchen gadget stocking fillers for hubby? A unique candleholder for the hippie of the family? A panorama or artwork capturing the Glass House Mountains for a newly painted wall at home? Some quirky coasters for the bar? The beauty of this long-established marketplace is that all your shopping wishes can come true here. Creative diversity and talent meets locally grown and produced goods, fruit and vegetables. As well as finding ourselves buying one-off fashion designs, talking points in decor, pet accessories, funky furniture and gifts for hard-to-buy-for relatives, we can fill our pantries and fridges for the next fortnight with artisan breads, organic produce, olives, take-home meals, relishes and dips, gourmet snacks and locally made sweets and treats. And we enjoy being able to chat to the bakers, the artists, the craftspeople, the jewellers, the cake-makers, the designers, the photographers, the therapists and a host of other stallholders about what they do, how they do it and why they love it. But beware: like me and my girlfriends, you’re likely to walk back to the carpark several times to drop off armfuls of items you weren’t expecting, hadn’t thought of but just had to have ... in a good way. Four or five hours later, our feet and legs hurt but our tummies are full with cuisine from around the world. And at least one of us is likely to “just duck back to that little stall before we go” to snap up the bargain they almost walked away from. Yep, that was another morning at the markets well-spent.