Every Sunday at the Stuck at the Airport travel blog is Souvenir Sunday, when we feature fun, under $10 items found in airport souvenir shops.

This week: a few treats from New Zealand’s Auckland Airport, which I toured after covering Air New Zealand’s matchmaking flight for my Well Mannered Traveler column on MSNBC.com. (Yes; a matchmaking flight. Not the world’s first matchmaking flight, but definitely the world’s longest.)  You can read From L.A. to Auckland, love is in the air here, and add your vote to the survey about looking for love on an airplane.

But back to Souvenir Sunday. I found heaps of things I wanted to buy at the airport’s Artport shop, which carries Maori carvings and all sorts of fun craft items, like these upholstered “Past Pleasures” plaques, made by New Zealand artists.

But for Souvenir Sunday, Tiki-shaped soaps and and these cute-but-corny candies struck my “made here and under $10” fancy.

Have you found a great souvenir while you’ve been stuck at the airport? If it’s under $10, “of” the city, and sort of offbeat, please take a picture and send it along. Your souvenir may be featured on a future edition of Souvenir Sunday.

Categories: Art, Shopping, Souvenirs
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Stuck at SFO?  Don’t forget that San Francisco International Airport is home to an accredited museum program and has more than 20 exhibits on view at any one time.  So don’t just sit there: get some culture.

Right now, there’s a new exhibition that includes 40 ceramic vessels from Ancient Greece and its colonies, as well as Etruscan wares.  The pots are on loan from the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthroplogy and depict everything from myths, gods, demons and warriors to animals, social gatherings, athletics, and the roles of men and women in society.

Scenes from Myths and Daily Life: Ancient Mediterranean Pottery is on view in the International Terminal Main Hall, pre-security, through March 21, 2009.

Want to know more? Like what ancient Greek drinking parties were like? Then show up for the free lecture at 2 pm, November 8, 2009 at the airport’s Aviation Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum, in the departures level of the International Terminal Main Hall.

The speaker will be Andrew Stewart, the Curator of Greek and Roman Archaeology at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology and Professor of Art History and Classics, UC Berkeley.

(Photos courtesy San Franciso International Airport)

Categories: Art, Exhibits
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First impressions are important, especially if you’re a city and you’d like folks who are just passing through to come back and stay awhile.  So you’d think every city would want its airport – its front door – to be all pretty and nice.

Like, say, Auckland Airport. Check out what greets visitors arriving on international flights:

No one is going to mistake this for an airport in Omaha, now are they?

And here’s another nice touch:  volunteers at the Auckland airport greet every international flight with complimentary coffee, tea, and travel information.

Categories: Air Travel, Architecture, Art, Assistance, Etiquette, Exhibits
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I’m a big fan of free. Free wireless Internet at airports.  Free admission to cool museums. Free samples.  And free travel.  And while I’m personally one of those “I never win anything” people, I keep that line (I think I saw it on a lottery commercial)  in mind – “Some lucky dog’s gonna’ win it” – and enter contests for the really fun stuff anyway.

So here are a few freebies you might enjoy and contests I’m sure I’m not going to win:

There’s free in-flight Wi-Fi for everyone November 15- January 15, 2009 on all Virgin America flights, courtesy of Google.

www.FlyPittsburgh.com and Delta.com are giving away two round trip tickets to Paris to one lucky person who signs up for the Discount Fares E-Newsletter from Pittsburgh International Airport.  The prize includes lunch before the flight,  free airport parking at Hyatt Regency Pittsburgh International Airport but, alas, no hotel stay in Paris.

The contest runs thru midnight, Wednesday, November 4. and the winner will be selected on Thursday, November 5.  You’ll need register to receive the airport’s Discount Fares E-Newsletter.  Enter here.

Still want to get to Paris for free, but have a place to sleep after eating all those croissants?  Try entering this contest for a New Year’s Eve trip to London that includes a Eurostar train ticket to Paris.

VisitLondon.com has a New Year’s Eve contest that includes airfare, 5 nights hotel accommodations, a New Year’s Eve dinner cruise, a day-trip on the Eurostar train to Paris, a VIP tour of Wembley Stadium and heaps of other fun stuff.  Enter here by November 19th.

Good luck! And if you win – bring home some fun souvenirs.

Categories: Air Travel, Airlines, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff
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Earlier this week, my short flight from New Zealand’s Rotorua Regional Airport to Auckland was canceled, so I ended up stuck at that tiny airport for a while. Good thing.  The delay gave me a chance to look around.  In addition to finding more than a half-dozen giant statues, I was able to learn a bit about Jean Gardner Batten, a famous New Zealand aviatrix from the 1930’s who was born in Rotorua in 1909 and made a number of record-breaking solo flights across the world,  including the first direct flight from England to New Zealand

( Photo: Jean Batten at Rongotai Airport, Wellington, circa 1930s, Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library).
Unfortunately, when Batten stopped flying she disappeared from public view and later became a reclusive. She died in November 1982 in Palma, Majorca after refusing treatment for a dog bite that had turned septic. She was buried anonymously in a mass grave and for five years, no one even knew she had died.

Later, it was discovered that Batten wanted to have her ashes interred at Auckland International Airport and today, that airport’s international terminal is named in her honor.   I’m going to poke around and see if I can find the spot where they’ve put her ashes.

Jean Batten exhibit at Rotorua Regional Airport

Categories: Air Travel, Art, Aviation history, Exhibits, History
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