Pete McGhee, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 7 of 11

Matapouri Lost Ring – Found!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:

Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626

Matapouri Bay is a very popular beach on the Tutukaka coast with its soft yellow-gold sand and clear ocean water. Unfortunately the beach environment is also one of the prime locations for lost items.
Loss of a ring at the beach is usually due to that fateful combination of sunscreen and wet hands, which can stealthily remove rings, sometimes without the wearer even being aware.
It is advisable to leave rings at home when visiting the beach. At the very least taking them off and leaving them somewhere safe, in a pocket or bag.
However despite precautions, even being in a pocket can be no guarantee that the beach won’t take and hide your precious jewellery…As Tuyana found out a week ago.

She had been enjoying the day at the beach with family, and took her sentimental gold and emerald ring off and put it in the pocket of a dress laying with some other clothes for safekeeping.

At the end of the day, the dress was collected during packing up and when the pocket was later checked for the ring, it was missing.

And so began another ring recovery story.

A local offered to try and locate the ring the following morning with his metal detector, although regrettably was unsuccessful.
After a detailed phone conversation later in the week with Tuyana, I headed down to Matapouri from the Bay of Islands the following weekend to see what I could do.

I had another appointment at Tutukaka at 9am, so made it an early start, leaving at 2am and was on the beach just before 4. I have found four hours searching is usually sufficient to secure 90% of rings – if there is an accurate start point.

By torchlight, I marked out the various high, medium and low probability areas between the ‘towel spot’ on the beach, and the carpark. Then switched the torch off and after a few minutes to allow the eyes to recover, started searching by starlight. One of the joys of having an audio-only machine with no menus or target ID numbers to read.
The area where Tuyana was sitting was probably clear, having already been searched. I rechecked it anyway [Assume Nothing, Believe No-one, Check Everything].

Now I moved into the almost arcane side of things…
We, as a species, are really quite predictable in our unconscious movements.
Have you been on a walk and seen a puddle on the track with new routes caused by people walking around, rather than through it?
Crossing the road, you always adjust your step to land on the curb, not in the gutter… This concept follows through into Ring Finding.

Just under an hour from starting, and while searching the margins around Tuyanas likely path back to the car, I found myself crawling around under one of the boardwalks that leads down onto the beach.
I carefully and systematically checked around each supporting post. Heavy stainless fittings meant the main coil was no good, so it was inch by inch with the handheld pinpointer.
At the third or fourth post, I got a signal just off to the side, I scooped the sand with my hand, and my fingers closed on the shape of a ring.

After verifying by touch that it wasn’t one of those old-style ‘Beaver Tail’ pulltabs off a drinks can, I flicked the headlamp on and sitting in my hand was a beautiful emerald ring.
At just after 6am, I felt it was early enough to text Tuyana and let her know. After all, how better to wake up to the new day knowing your precious lost ring is now found?

Later that morning, after my other appointment, I got to meet Tuyana and add her smile to my collection, then drove off with my own smile.

Job done.

 

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Ring Lost in Surf. Found after 3 Weeks, a Cyclone and Tsunami !

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:

Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626

Three weeks ago, Ray was on Tokerau Beach in Doubtless Bay engaging in that iconic Kiwi summer pursuit, digging in the sand for Tuatuas.
Regrettably, his sentimental gold and diamond ring did what so many other lost rings have also done while gathering these tasty shellfish, it slipped from his finger into the sand, and vanished.
A week later he left me a phone message asking if I was able to assist in finding his lost ring.

I arranged to meet him the coming weekend and see if I could get his ring back to him.

That’s when nature intervened with a double whammy in the form of Cyclone Cody pumping waves up to 5+m onto the coast.
Then one from left-field, the eruption of Hunga-Tonga (which I heard in New Zealand, some 2,400km away!) which sent tsunami surges out across the entire Pacific.
….I decided to reschedule the ring recovery for the following weekend!
There was real potential for substantial sand movement with these combined events, but my safety always comes first.

The appointed morning arrived and I thanked Ray for making the effort to meet me on site at dawn in order to catch the low tide. As he referred to photos taken on the day to sort out where he had been, I got kitted up to get wet.

I set up a ‘beat’ of around 60m width to try and allow for any positional errors in Rays recollection, and waded out into the break.

While the sea was calm for this surf beach, the storm had brought in tonnes of loose weed which instantly wrapped around the detector adding massive drag. It wasn’t practical to keep lifting the coil out of the water every few seconds to shake it off so I had to put up with it. It felt like I was mopping the ocean floor and had to change arms every few minutes.
Added entertainment was the water being infested by loads of Eagle Rays feeding on the Tuatuas in the turbid water. When I got too close, or accidentally clipped them with the coil, they would take off through the wash like jet fighters. I love these guys, but having to do the ‘Stingray Shuffle’ through the weed was really fatiguing…

I had completed about three or four sweeps across the search area when the detector sounded off on a faint target, there had been no trash for once, so in my mind this was going to be the ring.
The hole went deeper and deeper, only to reveal an old lead fishing weight! I shook a basketball sized lump of weed off the coil and continued on, disappointed.
15 minutes later, another quiet tone in the headphones could be heard over the waves and wind.
Quiet, but crisp.
The scoop went in, missed it, another bite went deep into the bottom of the hole – Check and the sand was quiet. Whatever it was was in the scoop.
I shook the sand and shell out through the scoop when I heard that familiar clatter of a ring.
I secured it and slogged ashore through the weed and rays.

The sequence of reactions, I have seen many times.
Initially resignation in their eyes as they saw me walking up the beach after apparently giving up, changing to disbelief when I removed the ring from inside my glove – then amazement that the ring had actually been found, and was back on Rays finger.

Some detectorists collect rings, I prefer to collect smiles 🙂

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Key Fob(s) Lost in Whangarei Paddock – Ring Finders to the Rescue

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:

Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626

Barge Park Showgrounds in Whangarei is a popular location for exercising dogs with a large off leash area, and where Holly had taken her dog for a run around yesterday.
After some time, and a considerable area of knee high weeds – her car fob was missing.
Not just her keys though, but her partners spare key fob for his truck as well…
After searching for some time, she reached out to me for help.

I met Holly at Barge Park this morning and asked her to describe how/when she thought she had lost them.
As she recounted the events the SAR tracker in me was assessing the various stories being told in the tracks through the grass and weeds.
Well, RingFinders is a form of Search and Rescue 🙂

I could see someone, probably Holly yesterday, had walked in that direction, then apparently randomly turned and headed over there…Possibly the meanderings of someone looking for something? The fresh growth displaced under a foot fall and held under tension, springing back when released telling me it was recent, the lay of the grass showing me direction of travel. Erratic flattened areas in a short line possibly a from dog bounding around? Over there, a quad bike had travelled up the side of the search area before someone had later crossed it’s tracks.
Many events written temporarily in the grass helping to build a story of where people had gone, one of whom had dropped some keys…
And importantly where they had NOT gone, allowing me to discount large areas that were devoid of human tracks making the potentially large and uncertain search area so much smaller.

Starting the grid in the area of highest probability, I opted to run the machine ‘hot’ in order to be able to sweep over the top of the weeds, stopping occasionally to jab the pinpointer into the grass to discount a target as being subsurface. After a while it became clear there was a LOT of loud metallic targets, probably horseshoes etc but I couldn’t afford to discriminate it out without the risk of partially masking the keys.

On the third run I got a ‘kick’ in the threshold tone, looked down, and tucked under the matted grass thatch was a flash of silver.
Job done.
What could have taken many hours, reduced to 20 minutes.
Tracking used for a different sort of Search and Rescue 🙂

The Scene

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Ring Lost Swimming at Whangarei – Found with Scuba

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:
Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626
Ella and her friends were swimming at the head of one of the Marsden Cove canals at One Tree Point, near Whangarei and as she moved out into the deeper dredged area, she felt her sentimental rose gold and diamond ring slip off her finger.
Long story short, five days later I found myself kitting up to dive the dock and hopefully locate her lost ring.
Although Ella wasn’t able to meet me on site, she did give me an excellent location of where, and how, it was lost.
Four minutes and twenty two seconds after reaching the bottom, I had the ring safely in my hand – I had spent more time putting the Scuba gear on than searching!
If you have lost a ring, or any item such as a bracelet or necklace, engaging an experienced Ring Finder as soon as possible gives you the absolute best chance of finding it.
This is especially so if the ring has been lost in the water, or in the sand.
I cover Whangarei, Tutukaka, Ngunguru, Russell, Paihia, Kerikeri, Coopers Beach, Taipa, Cable Bay and Kai Iwi and all areas in between.
I pride myself on an extremely high success rate with thirty six years experience and many hundreds of items found and returned in that time.
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Heirloom Signet Ring lost at Taupo Bay – Huge potential area, Found by Experienced Ring Finder

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:
Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626
Got a message from Krista
” Lost my ring at Taupo Bay today”.
After delving deeper, it transpired she might have lost her treasured heirloom rose gold ring at one of several locations: Washing the car, washing the dog, Potting/manuring some plants, swimming with the dog at one end of Taupo Bay, or when a boogie board was taken from her at the other end… HUGE potential area and with no start point. This is where experience takes precedence over ‘brute force’ (eg trying to cover every square centimeter). I met Krista  at her home, quickly eliminating the car/dog washing areas and the freshly manured garden plants as I waited for her to get ready to head down to the beach, although I already had a hunch where the lost ring would be found… I then followed her to the beach.
There were two locations of interest here, where she went into the water with her dog, and where a boogie board was taken off her. I chose to clear the latter first as it was at highest risk of being picked up by a casual holidaying metal detectorist as it was in the dry sand zone above the high tide mark and this time of year, coils are prevalent…
I cleared the highest probability area of the dry sand and with the tide about to turn shifted my focus to where she had taken the dog into the sea. I could return to complete the dry sand with a high intensity search if necessary.
At the swim spot at the other end of the bay, I asked Krista to retrace her movements and interactions from when she parked the truck. I mentally marked out the highest probability area on the sands as she retold her activities that afternoon and I settled in for a long search into the evening… I typically allow a minimum of four hours which, from experience, is sufficient to recover 90% of items. If the item is at a high risk of being lost to other detectorists, casual passers-by or a dynamic environment, eg surf, I often extend the hours to try and secure the lost item in the initial search phase.
After several circuits of the search pattern, I hit a nice solid tone at the waters edge – 3 inches under the surface lay her heirloom signet ring. It was outside the area she thought it would be [Trust No-one, Assume Nothing, Check everything] but the important thing was – It had been found.
I held it up and started to walk back towards her, a big grin on my face, a grin matched only by hers once she realised it was actually her lost ring and not someones elses.
All done, I packed up and headed home to get ready for my day job.
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Grandfathers Gold Ring Lost in Sea at Tutukaka, Found!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:
Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626
Erin was enjoying a swim at Kowharewa Bay, near Tutukaka when he lost his grandfathers signet ring.
The ring was given to his grandfather on his 21st birthday, and had been passed down to him. One of those things that is truly irreplaceable.
His wife contacted me, and I arranged to meet him at Tutukaka the following day to try and recover this precious part of his family history.
I was on site a little ahead of him, so set about lining up landmarks from a photo his wife had sent me and estimating how far out he would have been given the state of the tide and the 90 minute window they were there.
Kowharewa Bay has a very shallow contour below low water mark, so “waist deep” is potentially a huge area. The timestamp on the photo was invaluable as it told me exactly what the tide level was at the time around loss.
Once that was done, I headed back to the car to get the wetsuit on and make a start.
It was still well before low water, so did a quick calculation of how much extra depth to allow – which ultimately meant the curious onlookers on the beach could only see a pair of headphones and dive mask gliding backwards and forwards through the waves, occasionally sinking out of sight to investigate a potential target.
I finished the first search pattern out to one side of the estimated location and was just turning to head over and start a second run on the other side when the coil drifted over a solid tone off to my side .
Slipping underwater, I fanned the sand away to reveal a well worn signet ring.
Ring recovery is a “Game of Inches”. It’s a slow, methodical, extremely disciplined procedure, when there’s a lot of trash signals it can be extremely mentally fatiguing as well as you listen to and analyse every response.
Get lazy with just one sweep of the coil and you could miss the target and walk right past it.
Had the coil not just grazed the ring in this instance it could have been a long 4-6Hrs in the water into the night until the search pattern opened up far enough to include it.
I waded ashore and phoned to let Erin know I had something for him!
He turned up about 5 minutes later and quickly had the ring back on his finger.
Tutukaka Ngunguru Matapouri lost ring Northland Jewellery Recoveries New Zealand Ringfinders Northland Jewellery Recoveries
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Gold signet ring lost at Cable Bay – Found in the Sea

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:
Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626
Second recovery for the year and hot on the heels of Andys ring recovery at Tauranga Bay (which you can read below)
Shortly after Christmas, Caitie was enjoying her holiday at Cable Bay wearing a special gold signet ring gifted to her for her 21st with the family crest that dates back a few hundred years engraved into it.
Tragically, she lost the ring in the waves, and gave it up as lost.
Almost a week later, she contacted me.
She had been buying a couple of “make myself feel better” rings at a local jeweller in Mangonui, who suggested Caitie get in touch to see if I could reunite her with the treasured ring.
The beach at Cable Bay is a steep gradient ocean beach. It’s very dynamic being composed predominantly of small broken shell fragments and anything dropped has potential to sink through the layers quickly with the wave action. After a week, having Caitie be able to meet me on site would be critical to push the odds into our favour.
Unfortunately she was slightly  delayed getting to the beach, so I got started with the information I had to hand.
I cleared the area as described by Caitie, then started expanding out – focussing on the low tide mark and wash as the tide was due to turn and start coming in.
Some 20 metres further along the beach, knee deep in the water, I got a faint tone. Could be one of the thousands of flecks of aluminium foil that inhabit that beach… or a deep ring.
With ring finding, you have to confirm every single target. It’s not uncommon to finish a search for a ring in the sea with 50+ can pull tabs, bottle caps and old copper coins in the pouch. (any detected rubbish is bagged to help clean up the environment – and avoid digging it next time)
It took several scoops to catch up with the ring in the fluid sand at a depth of nearly 40cm.
I secured her wayward lost gold ring and continued hunting casually for the next few minutes while I waited for Caitie to arrive.
The reaction when you return a presumed lost for ever ring is always worth far more than the melt value to me.
There were screams, clapping hands and jumping with joy from Caitie.
Priceless.
Find Lost Ring Coopers Beach Mangonui Metal Detector Doubtless Bay Find lost ring
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Lost Silver Ring in Tauranga Bay Sand Dune – Found by the Ring Finders!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:
Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626
First recovery for 2022.
Andy was enjoying New Years Eve on the beach at Tauranga Bay near Whangaroa Harbour, and as he kicked back to make himself comfortable in the loose sand of the dunes, he felt his jandals slip off his feet. Over the hours, they got progressively buried in the steep and mobile dry sand dune.
But this isn’t a story of a jandal recovery.
In the pitch black, as he sifted through the sand looking for his now buried jandals, he felt his precious silver ring slip off and vanish into the sand.
He gave me a call today just as I was getting prepped to leave for another lost ring in the sea at Cable Bay an hour further north.
I made an earlier start and detoured out to Tauranga Bay en route.
Searching the area was a matter of trying to maintain tight control of the coil in a controlled slide down the dune, followed by a hard three steps up- slide two back, slog up to the top again. Great exercise in the midday summer sun…
I cleared the initially indicated area, and as Andy wasn’t exactly sure where he had been, I started to open up the search pattern – keeping a half eye on the time as I had to catch low tide up in Doubtless Bay for the other lost ring recovery. If necessary I could return to this one, but time and tide waits for no-one.
Halfway down the dune, about 6 or 7 metres from where Andy thought he had been, I picked up a bright silver tone.
The scoop went in, the dry sand flowed out through the holes like water leaving a lovely bark-textured silver ring behind.
Holding it up to Andy, it was met with a huge grin!
Then into the car, and off to Doubtless Bay for recovery number two… leaving Andy to continue to look for his jandals buried in the sand at the new location where I had found the ring
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Gold Wedding Ring Lost in Sea at Coopers Beach, Doubtless Bay – Found

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:
Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626
Four days ago, while on holiday at Coopers Beach, Mary-Ellen lost her wedding ring of 32 years while messing around in the shallows. Her friend messaged me asking if a recovery was possible… Mary-Ellen and her husband were able to meet me on site which always greatly sways the odds in favour of a recovery.
The following morning, I drove up to meet them at Coopers Beach to try and find her lost ring.
As her husband marked out the boundaries of their swimming in the wet sand, I checked the dry sand where they had been sitting. Nothing found (other than the usual can pulltabs and bottle caps). So I moved down into the area where they were swimming and started to search the marked areas…as Mary-Ellen and her husband decided they might have gone a bit further down current – and extended the search area again.
I don’t mind people changing their minds mid search as it influences where I direct my efforts to maximise the chances of a successful recovery.
Ultimately, after covering 1,300 square metres to 90+% confidence, the tide chasing me out and the sun taking its toll, I had to call it a draw. A “draw” as the beach had won this time but I was going to be back.
That afternoon I was chasing a pair of hearing aids on a shelly trash-infested beach in Kerikeri – Unfortunately after six hours they still eluded me, possibly taken by tide or located elsewhere. Can’t always win.
The following day saw me driving a three-hour round trip down to Whangarei to recover Joshs lost wedding ring at Ngunguru (His story is below).
Yesterday was a rest day!
Despite four days having passed since she lost the ring, I was back chasing Mary-Ellens lost gold and diamond wedding ring again this morning… Confident it wasn’t likely to be in the original search area I followed the falling tide down and expanded the search area outwards, both along the beach and further seaward. Assume Nothing, Trust No-One, Check Everything.
About 10m outside the original search boundary, I got a faint but positive tone in the headphones.
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They were in the process of packing up the tent to head home when Mary-Ellen got a text
“Hope you’re still in Coopers. I have something for you…”
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Handcrafted Titanium Wedding Ring Lost at Ngunguru – Found!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:

Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626

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Josh contacted me explaining he had lost his handcrafted titanium wedding ring while swimming in the Ngunguru estuary the previous day.
It had been made by a friend for his wedding and whilst another could be made, it would never be the ‘same’ ring with the same memories.
A couple of local detectorists had been out to try their luck, however by this morning – the second day since loss, it had not yet been reported as found.

With a dawn start helping avoid most of the summer holiday traffic, I made the 130km trip in good time. Arriving about an hour before low water. This gave a small window where the current would allow a water search at slack tide, if needed.
While I waited for Josh to arrive, I thought I may as well get started, so grabbed the detector and headed down onto the mudflats.
My tracking experience enabled me to separate the straight line walkers tracks from the wandering footprints of someone looking for something from the previous day, although a couple of recently dug holes did have me concerned.
I had to assume the ring was still here until proven otherwise, so sorted out the areas of highest probability and started with the most likely area it could be located.
No sense in getting kitted up for a water search if I didn’t need to.

Ten minutes later, I lifted the ring out of the silt from in amongst some loose shells and walked back to the car to text Josh that I had “a present for him” when he got there.
I think there was some disbelief in his eyes that it actually was his ring when I handed it back – There wouldn’t be that many square titanium rings lying around 🙂
Hugs from his mum and handshakes from Josh and they headed off to enjoy the last day or so of their holiday up here.

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