Christchurch or Melbourne?

Christchurch's beaches face open Pegasus Bay. There is the long grey strand at New Brighton, sheltered Sumner for a family swim and Taylors Mistake for surfers. The water stays cold and easterly winds can blow in, so most visitors walk and paddle rather than swim.

Melbourne is the better bet for a swim, though it is still not a beach destination. The calm bay water at St Kilda, Elwood and Brighton is a few degrees warmer and a short tram or train ride away. By car, the Mornington Peninsula adds both sheltered sand and wild ocean beaches.

Christchurch eats well from the farmland around it. There is Canterbury lamb, Akaroa salmon and Waipara wine, good brunch and coffee, and a covered food market by the river, but a few evenings cover it.

Melbourne is a reason to travel in itself. It shares the flat white and brunch habit, then adds generations of migrant cooking: Greek on Lonsdale Street, Italian on Lygon Street, Vietnamese in Richmond and Footscray, and a deep Chinatown. With Queen Victoria Market and a strong small-bar scene as well, a week of dinners would barely cover it.

Christchurch's sights tell two stories. One is the Gothic Revival stone of the Arts Centre. The other is the earthquakes that destroyed much of the centre, explained at the cardboard Transitional Cathedral and the earthquake museum. Its art gallery and its role as a gateway to Antarctica add something unusual.

Melbourne has more to fill the days. Gold-rush wealth left a grander Victorian city, with the Royal Exhibition Building, the State Library reading room and the arcades. The National Gallery of Victoria holds an international collection that Christchurch cannot match, and the laneway street art and the city's museums add another day of sightseeing.

A night out in Christchurch comes down to a few riverside blocks on Oxford Terrace and Victoria Street, busy at weekends and quiet early otherwise. Melbourne is in another league. It has cocktail and wine bars hidden up stairwells across the CBD, late pubs in Fitzroy and Collingwood, clubs on Chapel Street and a scene that stays busy most nights of the week.

This is where Christchurch leads. Volcanic crater-rim tracks on the Port Hills start from the suburbs, and Banks Peninsula's drowned bays are made for kayaking with dolphins. The Southern Alps put alpine tramping at Arthur's Pass and winter skiing within about two hours.

Melbourne's outdoors is gentler and more spread out. It has the mountain ash forests of the Dandenongs, cliff walks on the Mornington Peninsula, the penguins and seals of Phillip Island and the surf coast at Torquay. The walking and wildlife are good, but there are no high mountains within easy reach.

Christchurch has a short list of rewarding outings: French-settled Akaroa, hillside Lyttelton, the Waipara wineries and the alpine village of Hanmer Springs. Beyond those, distances grow and trips become more about scenery than places.

Melbourne has more variety within reach. The Yarra Valley and the Mornington Peninsula offer wine, and the gold-rush towns of Ballarat and Bendigo are each under two hours by train. Spa country around Daylesford adds a slower day out.

Both are safe, relaxed and easy with children. Christchurch is flat and uncrowded, with a huge riverside playground, punting on the Avon, Orana's open-range animals and the penguins and snowstorm room at the Antarctic Centre. A car helps for the outlying parks.

Melbourne has more for a longer stay and for wet days. It has a zoo close to the centre, the safari bus at Werribee, platypus at Healesville, Sea Life, Scienceworks, Luna Park and the Puffing Billy steam railway. Its trams make getting around with a pram simple.

Christchurch's centre is flat, compact and laced with cycleways, so the core is easy on foot or by e-scooter. The wildlife parks, the gondola and Banks Peninsula, though, really call for a hire car.

Melbourne goes much further without one. Its large tram network is free within the CBD and runs out to St Kilda, Fitzroy and South Yarra. Trains serve the bayside suburbs and regional towns such as Ballarat and Bendigo, and only the Yarra Valley, the Dandenongs and Phillip Island need a car or a tour.

Christchurch is modest, with a compact precinct of chain stores, the long-trading Ballantynes department store and weekend markets for knitwear, pounamu and crafts. Melbourne is a real shopping city by comparison. It has the mosaic-floored Block and Royal arcades, luxury labels on upper Collins Street, and independent designers and vintage on Gertrude, Smith and Chapel streets.

Neither city is cheap, but Christchurch is a little easier on the budget. Its rooms cost less than in New Zealand's tourist hubs, and its parks, gallery and beaches are free, though meals are pricey and car hire adds up.

In Melbourne, central hotels and drinks cost more, especially during big sporting events and festivals. It makes some of that back with the free tram zone, free entry to major museums and good cheap food in Chinatown, Footscray and Richmond.

Christchurch keeps a respectable programme for its size. The symphony orchestra plays in the Town Hall, admired for its acoustics, the Court Theatre is one of the country's main companies and touring shows come to the Isaac Theatre Royal, though many nights there is little on.

Melbourne has the full range. The Arts Centre hosts opera, the Australian Ballet and the symphony, and the historic theatres on the east side of the CBD stage the big musicals. Pub stages in Fitzroy and St Kilda have bands most nights, and the autumn International Comedy Festival fills venues across the centre for weeks.

Both cities keep their best bathing for a day out of town. Christchurch has one unusual asset in the city itself: the hot saltwater pools on the New Brighton beachfront, beside the surf. Hanmer Springs' mineral pools in the forest are further afield.

Melbourne offers a little more choice. It has plenty of day spas, sea baths with saunas at St Kilda and Brighton, the historic spa country of Daylesford and Hepburn Springs and geothermal hot pools on the Mornington Peninsula. A café culture built on lingering also keeps the inner city unhurried.