Call me Clark Griswold. I joined a few Kiwi friends at a popular watering hole for a post-race beer one evening. Seated with them were fellow New Zealand journalists whom I had not met before. Just after sitting down, a youthful bloke in black trousers and white shirt arrived with several beers and a glass of wine.
    He set the drinks on the table, then began to walk away. I quickly touched his arm and said, "Hey, hang on. I want to order a couple beers, too."
    My companions were at first shocked, then they all burst out laughing. The "waiter" was the sports editor for one of the local newspapers. He wasn’t an employee of the pub at all. It was merely his turn to buy, and he had been at the bar doing just that when I sat down.
    The incident was embarrassing, but it was also instructional in terms of comparing the New Zealand and U.S. hospitality industries. In the United States, service in popular restaurants and bars is generally good, if not excellent, but airline travel intolerable. In New Zealand it’s just the opposite.
    Everyone at the table, including our "waiter," fully understood my rude behavior. We all frequented establishments near America's Cup Central long enough to know that the service is generally so appalling that you’re better off getting your own drinks than waiting for a server to take your order. Even standing at the bar with money in hand often does not provide enough clues for the dullards to figure out that you actually want to increase their business.
    If you are fortunate enough to get waited on at your table, when the order is finally delivered the servers rarely ask whether anyone wants something else. They just walk away. Hence the embarrassing introduction to my professional associate.
    Americans will tell you it’s because there's no tipping in New Zealand. The Kiwis pride themselves in providing reasonable wages in the service industry. Tipping is demeaning, they say.
    On the upside, no tipping makes settling one's bill simple and reduces the cost of dining out. The downside is that service, especially in the waterfront area adjoining the America's Cup activities, is dreadful. Would you wait 20 minutes for a $2 cup of coffee (no refills) and 45 minutes for a small lunch? That's what some of these establishments seem to think is acceptable service.
    This is unfortunate because New Zealand tourism officials are counting on the America's Cup — the final match begins Feb. 19 — to boost the numbers. Yet visitors are leaving eateries with a sour taste in their mouths, and the worst service is in the most popular area of Auckland.
    Nor is this just an ugly American whining. The Kiwis whine more than I do. They're embarrassed about it.
    Ironically, when we do get good service and I’m tempted to leave a tip, the Kiwis cringe. "You Yanks are going to ruin a good thing. Besides, the tips are built into the prices and their wages."
    I pointed out that maybe if tipping were the norm, and if the servers didn’t get good tips unless the service merited it, then service would improve. The Kiwis don’t seem to care. Service, on the whole, is satisfactory and that’s good enough. After all, most Kiwis are too polite to complain.
    That's not to say that you can’t find excellent service. One night a group of us dined at Vinnies, a European-style cafe some distance from the waterfront. As I glanced at the wine list, I lamented to my colleagues that I had forgotten my reading glasses. Literally within seconds, reading glasses were on the table in front of me.
    When we ordered wine by the glass, it was poured at the table, not behind the counter where any old plunk could be plopped in your glass. Not only was the service superb, so was the food.
    Even the Kiwis in the group agreed that a tip was warranted. Mind you, not a 15 or 20 percent tip. A generous tip would be 10 percent at the most.

    Coffee, Tea Or Freebie?
    While dining out in New Zealand can be exasperating, air travel is actually a pleasant experience. Imagine arriving at an airport less than half an hour before your flight. You check your bags without having to dig out your ID and suffer a third degree on who packed your bags. You proceed to the gate without suspicion of being a fanatical terrorist — there are no security checks for domestic flights.
    Once on the airplane, even on short hops aboard the turbo-props, you get lunch. None of this Lilliputian-sized bag of flavorless peanuts or pretzels.
    The service begins before the plane has even leveled off. You have your meal before having time to flip through the in-flight magazine. A recent lunch was an open-faced salmon sandwich, fruit juice, roll with butter, tasty dessert and coffee or tea. Because it was the holiday season, a chocolate Santa was thrown in for good measure. And this was in coach. On longer flights aboard larger planes, passengers are served a full meal.
    If there's any complaint, it’s that we’re fed too much. And if a flight is delayed, passengers are offered complimentary wine or beer.
    Now, if we only could get U.S. airlines to adopt such policies, maybe we'd even start tipping.

Larry M. Edwards is a San Diego journalist in New Zealand working on the official America's Cup Web site, www.americascup.org. While there, he has promised to regularly send New Zealand Notes.