Are either of the possible highways from Coromandel to Rotorua airport scenic? Reason for question - we will rent a car at AKL and drive to Coromandel for a few days. Trying to decide whether to double back to AKL and fly to WLG or drive to ROT and fly to WLG. Trade-off: Is the drive to ROT suffiiently scenic/interesting to be worth the extra hour driving and higher price for flight?
Thanks in advance.

We did that drive a couple of years ago (taking Routes 25, 26, 2 and 33) through Tauranga were we stopped for lunch and hiked some of the trails of Mount Maunganui. The drive was very scenic.

If we stopped at every scenic overlook we passed during our 6 weeks driving around New Zealand we'd still be there. What an incredibly beautiful country.

In light of the fact that the first hour from Auckland is on motorway, just about any road would be considered more scenic!

Won't you have a higher price for the rental car as well if you fly out of Rotorua? Or were you planning to go with one of the multinational car companies regardless.

Where else in New Zealand are you going? If the extent of your trip is Auckland/Coromandel/Wellington, then I'd opt to fly out of Rotorua. If you are heading to South Island, then you will have plenty of scenic drives so I'd opt for Auckland.

Thanks to both for very useful info/questions.