Pete McGhee, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 8 of 12

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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Two Rings Lost at Whangarei Beach – Found!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:

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

Had a call from Kim last night, she had lost two white gold wedding rings in the sea at Taiharuru near Whangarei Heads while swimming that morning, one of which was her husbands who had recently passed away and understandably of enormous sentimental attachment.

With the next low tide at 9am, I was fortunate in being able to arrange a later start time at work and so at 4am, I pulled out of the drive and started the two hour drive south to Whangarei to catch the tide.
I met Kims brother in law on site at 6 and he was very helpful in relating the sequence of events.
It was a massive help that someone had the presence of mind at the time to make a cairn of rocks at the high tide line, and also paced how far out Kim was…69 paces east of the cairn – Where a large rock had also been dropped.
Certainly one of the most comprehensive start points I’ve had.

I got set up and paced out from the cairn, down the beach and out into the tide – ending up right at the marker rock.

With the forethought that went into marking the location, the odds had swung hugely in our favour and I started the grid…
An industrial-grade electric fence about 150m away was sending solid pulses through the headphones every second, the novelty of this wore off extremely quickly as it forced me to double check many ‘false hits’ in case it was a ring.
Just over an hour later I got nice metal tone (in between fence pulses) and I fanned the sand away to reveal her husbands ring.

Kims ring wouldn’t be far away.

…And it wasn’t, being located about a metre or so further out.

Both rings now secured, I waded ashore as Kims brother in law phoned her to relay the good news.

It was an emotional moment in town later when I met Kim, handed her the rings and she kissed her husbands wedding ring.

Gave me warm fuzzies for the rest of the day at work.

 

Video Clip – That Moment all Ring Finders Love – When a Lost Ring is Located.

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Wedding Ring Lost in Whangarei Garden – Found.

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:

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

Wendy posted on her local Whangarei community group asking for a metal detector or help to locate her wedding ring, someone suggested that she contact me.

She had noticed it missing one evening, however she had a fairly good idea of where it may have been lost. Walking her dog that day, the wayward beastie had snatched the lead out of her hand – Or it might have been when she was putting up some garden fencing….?
We headed to where the dog had pulled the lead out of her hand first, as it was in a public area so highest risk of being picked up – As soon as we arrived, I could tell it was probably not there due to a highly manicured lawn, surrounded by pavement and asphalt. It would have been easily seen, or heard if it bounced off the hard surfaces. The lawn had been mown since the loss, so for good measure I checked the pile of clippings – Nothing.
Plan B, head for the garden.
I switched coils on the machine to the tiny 6″ unit in order to get in and around all the undergrowth and started systematically working my way around the garden.
About 3/4 of the way around, tucked just under the fence and under a layer of mulch was Wendys ring, invisible to the eye, and in that location probably unlikely to have been disturbed for many years – if ever.

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Trying to Find a Lost Ring led to yet Another Loss! – Time to Call Ringfinders!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:
Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626
Marlene had been looking for her daughters wedding ring, lost at Paihia beach at Christmas. She very sheepishly described over the phone how she had tried to locate it yesterday by dropping her own wedding ring into the dry sand, so she could get an idea of what she was looking for…
The inevitable happened.
Three hours and a large pile of relocated sand later, it dawned on her that maybe she needed to outsource the job to a specialist to get her ring back!
I arrived on site and Marlene was waiting for me, leading me straight to the first priority – her own lost ring.
It was an impressive mound of sand she had moved, and I got the target straight away, deep inside the bottom of the heap, probably one of the first frantic handfuls.
That problem sorted, I then set out for her daughters ring – unfortunately with the very short grass, likely mown a few times since, and many thousands of eyes that would have passed the small area over the last three months of summer, her daughters lost ring was no longer there.
Apparently her daughter lost two rings – one of which was later found and reunited with her when an honest gentleman accidentally knelt on it, and handed it in to Police Lost Property.
Regrettably, he was not aware there were two rings there at the time…
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Two Rings Lost in Angry Surf – Night Search, Found!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:

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

Ann-Maree was holidaying at Tauranga Bay Camp near Whangaroa and decided to brave the dumping surf and go for a wade. She underestimated the power of the surges up the beach and was forced to put her hands down into the sand to maintain her balance as the water rushed past her.

She gave up the idea due to the ferocity of the water and returned to the dry sand, that’s when she noticed her two gold rings were missing, one a very sentimental engagement diamond ring from two generations ago.

She asked at the camp office if she could hire a metal detector, they didn’t have one and instead they gave her my contact details – along with a really positive summary of my previous success stories there.

Ann-Maree phoned me at work and explained the situation. Knowing this beach changes with each tide, it eats rings so I headed home to get my kit and was soon on site – Staring at a 2.5m dumping surf break on a very steep beach. Haven’t seen it like that for many years !

The sand was really deep and mobile, but there was no way I was going to risk going into the surf until the tide was further out and it had calmed down a little.  I started by gridding the shallows, intending to follow the tide down. Within 10 minutes I had been caught by a sweep and my shorts were soaked…So gave up staying dry after that.

I ran two opposing grids on the 11″ coil, then switched to the 15″ and ran another two, real hard work with the surges grabbing the coil and only netted a token for the camp showers and a few odds and ends of scrap.

The 15″ was taking it’s toll, so with the tide further out, I reverted to the 11″ and wound the settings up so ‘hot’ it would probably pick up the earths core. And started a new set of grids.

After 4Hrs, it was now dark and I was right down on nearly low tide mark now.  I got a deep, clean tone. Battling the water and the almost fluid shelly sand, I heaved scoopfuls out of the hole until I had it, pinpointed it with the coil in the diggings, and rapidly placed my foot on it as another surge came past.  In with the pinpointer and my fingers found the shape of a ring in the dark.

I marked the spot and headed up to Ann-Marees camper to confirm – Yes! It was one of them, but not the treasured heirloom.

But, I now had a pin in the map! I knew that if I didn’t find the second ring this time around, it would be lost to the beach with the heavy surf. The beach contour had already changed significantly in the time I had been there.

I headed back and started a focussed search in the area. Another brass screw, bit of wire, odd scraps of metal… then deep and quiet, there was something. I wound the volume right up in the headphones to try and hear it over the surf. Has to be it.

Several hasty scoops later and I had the second ring.

Ann-Maree had given hem up for lost.

I refused to.

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Silver Ring Lost While at Work – Found in Kerikeri Orchard

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:

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

Just after sunrise this morning I was meeting Sinead at a local commercial orchard near Kerikeri, with the objective of finding her silver ring lost the previous day.
She had taken it off and put it a pouch with her phone while planting new vines. But later in the day, discovered it had disappeared.

Fortunately she had a good idea of which rows it would be in, although a dedicated group of fellow workers on hands and knees had failed to find it yesterday.
On arrival at the block, deep in the orchard, Sinead recounted how she had taken her ring off and put it in the pouch with her phone at the start of work.

We started the search in the row where she had taken the phone out of the pouch to answer a call.

Going was very tough with lots of chatter from buried offcuts, wire staples and similar chaff that you find on any established commercial site, however the ring would (should) be a good signal and I was able to move reasonably fast.
As the coil wiped the dew off the grass it gave an excellent indicator that I was getting 100% coverage. Who needs GPS!

First row finished after about 45 minutes with only a couple of too-close-to-call possibles investigated.

We moved onto the second row, I was suddenly now conscious that this orchard covered several square kilometres…

Sinead mentioned that she noticed she had dropped her headphones here…or maybe that row over there – I took her word for it, they all looked the same to me!
I started in the area where the headphones were found, nothing. Opened the search a bit wider and…a good repeatable signal.
I parted the grass and saw the silver edge of the ring pressed into the topsoil.
Leaving it there, I beckoned to Sinead to come over.
“Oh, Wow!”, as she excitedly picked up her ring from where it fell and put it back on her finger.

 

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Lost Gold Signet Ring in the Sea at Russell – Found After Three Years of Searching!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
Contact:

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

Three years ago, Connor was swimming at Long Beach near Russell and he felt his gold signet ring slip off his finger.
This was a one-off piece, well sort of, as each of the family had one made with the family crest embossed into it. Effectively irreplaceable.

I met with Connor at the time and spent some hours looking for it in the surf and on the beach, however came back empty handed.

It was highly unlikely a casual detectorist had found it in such a short time, so it had to have gone deep with the sand movement.
It became a thorn in my side, knowing it was there…
Any time I was in Russell since then, I had a look at the beach – Some days the sea and sand were favourable so I spent a few more hours looking. As I do with any outstanding recovery.
Other days, there was obviously a lot of deep sand overburden, so any attempt wouldn’t be productive.
About three weeks ago, I stopped by as had become habit (bordering on obsession) whenever I was on the peninsula.
I saw a very shallow and subtle shift in the beach contour so I kitted up.
The first hole produced a very old and white-oxidised lead sinker, this looked promising – but had someone else beaten me to it with the ring?
Second signal was a clean low tone, but very faint. I dug the scoop in deep, but the signal remained in the hole.
Second scoop took me down to around 40cm deep, the hole was silent so whatever it was, was in the scoop.
Expecting another sinker, I shook the sand out of the scoop in the water, looked in and there was a beautiful orangey-yellow of gold, just starting to get that water-aged tone.

Three years… and fifteen days, after it had been lost.

I emailed Connor that night with a photo. His reply was that of amazement, disbelief, and lots of exclamation marks.

Today he drove up from Auckland, and I handed his family ring back to him, smiles and handshakes aplenty.

I sat in the car afterwards, and put a line through his entry in my little black book and wrote, with immense satisfaction,

“FOUND! 11/02/21”

 

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