It's our third trip to New Zealand, and after spending over a month on the South Island, we finally got around to visiting Hot Water Beach on the Coromandel peninsula of the North Island. It was as uninspiring as I had expected. Didn't miss much by not stopping here on earlier trips. The first trip (2019) we ran out of time, and wanted to see real thermal activity. Second trip (2023) we didn't visit Coromandel at all because of all the typhoon related road and trail closures.
Instead of going to the paid parking tourist trap area, we used the free car-park and walked along the beach toward the mass of people to the south.
We arrived about 10:00, an hour after low tide, and it was amusing to see people industriously digging away in the sand trying to construct their soak hole only for the rising seawaters to wash it all away with a couple of incoming waves.
Some of the diggings did hit hot water, as we could see steam rising from some of the pits. Didn't stick around as the area seemed to combine the worst features of hot bathing springs and beaches (boring places for boring people).
Besides, in a few days will be able to report on real geyser activity (or the lack thereof).