Auckland or Christchurch?

Auckland is the city for swimming. The bays along Tamaki Drive and on the North Shore are sandy, sheltered and safe for children, and they get properly warm in late summer. Beyond them you can choose between west-coast surf at Piha and Muriwai or the quiet white sand of Waiheke.

Christchurch's New Brighton and Sumner are real beaches, and Taylors Mistake has surf. But the sea stays cool even in midsummer and an easterly can empty the shore, so most visitors walk and paddle rather than swim.

Auckland has the broader table, largely thanks to the people who live there. Dominion Road has regional Chinese, Korean and Malaysian cooking, Pacific Island communities run food stalls, and green-lipped mussels and Bluff oysters show off the seafood, with Waiheke's vineyards a ferry ride away.

Christchurch cooks from the Canterbury farmland: lamb, Akaroa salmon and Waipara pinot noir. Its brunches and riverside covered market are good, but a few evenings exhaust the top end. Neither city has a cuisine of its own.

Neither is a city of great sights, and two days covers either. Auckland edges ahead on collections. Nothing in Christchurch matches the War Memorial Museum's Māori and Pacific treasures, with their carved meeting house and war canoe, and the volcanic cones still carry the earthworks of old pā.

Christchurch's interest is of another kind: Gothic Revival stone around the Arts Centre, and the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes told through the Transitional Cathedral and a dedicated museum. Its role as a gateway to Antarctica adds a polar side that Auckland lacks.

Auckland gives you more evenings to choose from, spread over several strips: Ponsonby Road for wine and cocktails, Karangahape Road for late bars, small clubs and the queer scene, and the harbourside Viaduct after work. Christchurch fits its nights into a few blocks around Oxford Terrace and Victoria Street, where craft beer pubs and wine bars fill at weekends and empty early otherwise. In both cities a long drink is more the point than a big club night.

Both are superb bases for the outdoors, but they face different ways. Auckland's landscape is maritime: volcanic cones inside the city, Rangitoto and the bird sanctuary of Tiritiri Matangi by ferry, kauri forest in the Waitākere Ranges and the sailing waters of the Hauraki Gulf.

Christchurch looks to the mountains. The Port Hills crater rim rises from the suburbs, and you can kayak among Hector's dolphins off Banks Peninsula. The Southern Alps are about two hours away, with alpine tramping at Arthur's Pass and skiing at Mt Hutt.

Auckland has the easier days out. Waiheke is about forty minutes by ferry with no car needed, and Devonport, the Matakana wineries and even Hobbiton fill more days.

Christchurch's best outings, Akaroa and Hanmer Springs, each take about an hour and a half by road, though Lyttelton and the Waipara Valley are closer. From both cities the bigger regional sights are better saved for an overnight stay.

Both are easy with children, but the days look different. Auckland has the more classic attractions: a zoo, an aquarium with a tunnel under the sharks, MOTAT's trams and planes, the Rainbow's End theme park and calm beaches for swimming.

Christchurch is flatter and quieter. It has a huge riverside playground, punting on the Avon and the heritage tram, and its animal outings at Orana, Willowbank and the Antarctic Centre's penguins lie on the city's edge. In either city a car makes the days simpler.

Christchurch is the simpler city to get around. Its centre is completely flat, and separated cycleways and e-scooters take you further than walking would.

Auckland's centre is compact but hilly, and its sprawl and motorway traffic make a car feel necessary sooner. Its harbour ferries to Devonport, Waiheke and Rangitoto are a pleasure Christchurch has no answer to. For the countryside, both need a hire car.

Auckland has more to browse: New Zealand designer labels and homeware along Ponsonby Road and in Newmarket, and upmarket stores in Britomart's restored warehouses. Christchurch's rebuilt centre is mostly chains, with the department store Ballantynes, trading since the 1850s, as its landmark. Both sell merino knitwear and pounamu for taking home, and Auckland's Ōtara market adds Pacific crafts.

Neither city is cheap, but Christchurch is easier on a budget, chiefly because rooms cost less than in Auckland, where central and waterfront hotels are dear in summer. In Auckland, ferry fares and Waiheke wine push up the cost of most plans. In Christchurch the extra cost is more likely to be a hire car and full admission at the wildlife parks, and in both the best outdoor sights are free.

Auckland has the fuller calendar. The Auckland Philharmonia plays in the Town Hall and the Aotea Centre, New Zealand Opera stages seasons in the city, and touring musicals fill the Civic under its starry ceiling. The Arts Festival and the Pasifika Festival, with Pacific Island music and dance, are the high points of the year.

Christchurch does well for its size. It has a symphony orchestra in a Town Hall admired for its acoustics, the Court Theatre, and ballet and comedy at the Edwardian Isaac Theatre Royal, plus a summer buskers' festival. It has no dedicated opera house, though, and on many nights there is little on.

The two are even here, and serious bathers leave either city to find hot springs. Christchurch has the more memorable soak in town, hot saltwater pools on the New Brighton beachfront facing the surf, and Hanmer Springs' forest mineral pools make a full day out.

Auckland's thermal pools at Parakai fill a modest half day and Waiheke has a few retreats, but Rotorua, the real geothermal centre, needs an overnight stay.