Bay of Islands Tag | Page 3 of 3 | The Ring Finders

Ring Lost in Whangarei, Eaten by Cow – Found!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Over the years, I’ve had my share of looking for rings lost while gardening, throwing things for the dog, or just being lobbed randomly during arguments.  This was my first hunt for a ring that had been vacuumed off a finger by a calf!

Luke made contact after reading of my successful hunts, and for me the story was too intriguing!  He had been letting the calves suck his fingers in order to keep them tame, and the hand came back minus the ring…

On the day in question, he hadn’t banked on the powerful combination of bovine slobber and suction!  Catch was, had it been spat out on the ground nearby,  chewed, swallowed and passed through the digestive system to turn up elsewhere in the paddock…or was it still in there?

He was very pleased to see me, and we headed straight out so he could show me where it all happened, also pointing out the calves that I could end up scanning!  The ground had been dry, which was good as it meant it was unlikely to have been pressed deep into mud – however the Autumn-flush grass was mid-calf (That’s my calf, not the cow variety) which was going to make it very hard work.

I started at the “Point Last Seen” and nosed the coil in and around the grass in the immediate vicinity with no luck, so I resigned myself to gridding about an acre of very lush pasture.

With my back into the corner of the wire fences, I took the first swing, and was immediately disheartened by the erratic threshold sounds of electrical interference from a buried cable. Not overly bad fortunately.  Second swing…. third swing and a golden tone rang through the headphones! I parted the long grass, couldn’t see anything.  Out with the pinpointer, it chirped away…but I still couldn’t see anything.

A slight change of head angle and a flash of yellow lit up in among the dead stems. It was already making itself very comfortable in there, and I was glad I didn’t have to use the rubber gloves 🙂

Knocked on the door of the house again, and was met by a huge smile when I held the ring up – That’s when I found out, it’s their wedding anniversary in just a few days.

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Metal Detecting on Whangarei Roadside to Find Lost Ring

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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I was just doing a casual beach detect at a very small, unassuming patch of sand tucked away on Whangarei Harbour in New Zealand. It is the sort of place that would struggle to have 20 people squeezed into it on a busy summer day.

After I had been detecting for maybe thirty minutes, a beach-goer wandered up and asked if I would be able to find his wifes ring.  Quick background of,  “It fell off her hand outside the car as we turned at a junction, six months ago – I saw it rolling across the road”.   This was a new scenario for me!

I said I’d give it a go.

Packed up and followed the gentleman to the scene. I was envisaging a sea of can pull tabs, the usual metal detritus that litters the roadside, and possibly a flat and chewed ring.

When we got there, I didn’t have my usual high vis gear with me, so it was a very cautious operation to ensure neither I or the detector got clipped by a passing wing mirror as I nosed the coil in and out of the undergrowth and leaf litter. My helper made life easier by shifting all the crushed cans and foil packets he could – But there were plenty of scraps left for me!  After four to five minutes and another crumpled up bit of foil, I got a hint of a clean tone under one of the plants. I couldn’t get the beach coil in properly, so scuffed the leaf litter out into the open, and left behind, lying in the dirt was his Precious.

Happy faces all round back at the beach!  A quick pose for a photo, and I went back to where I left off twenty minutes earlier.

The beach smiled kindly on my good deed and gave me an old and ornate silver ring shortly after – This would have been lost well before there were RingFinders to save the day!

 

 

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Lost Ring Found on Whangarei Beach

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Jan 14th, 2018
I came across a plea on social media about a gold ring lost in the surf at Ruakaka. The beach is open to the ocean, has a reasonable longshore current and while conditions had been calm, sand is always moving… and rings are always sinking.
While it was outside my normal maximum travel range, the backstory to the ring put a successful recovery and return at the top of my priorities. Even if I took a financial loss, I was going to do my utmost to find and return this ring!
The ring had been lost for just over two days by the time I got there. Family efforts with a borrowed metal detector the previous day had drawn a blank.

The gentleman concerned turned up, and after a brief discussion, he duly marked out the boundaries in the sand, I waded in and got to work. It was hard graft with a big coil, although after digging a fishing weight from over a foot down, I knew if the ring could be found, it would be found.
Two hours later, I got a nice solid tone. It was so beautifully clear and smooth, it could only be gold. I listened to it again and again, knowing what it was. I had to pause as a largish wave passed, then went after it.

In the scoop was a whole heap of smiles 🙂

Some rings are worth far, far more than their weight in gold.

Find lost ring Whangarei Northland Jewellery Recoveries

Lost Ring Whangarei Northland Jewellery Recoveries

 

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Northland Ring Lost, Found and Returned after Five Years in the Sand!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Jan 2nd, 2018

Hot on the heels of my first ring recovery for this summer, I finally managed to track down the owner of a ring I found mid-2017.

It had been returned from Police Found Property, although the fact it had an unusual name engraved inside made me want to try and find the owner myself.

Seven months of lurking around the internet and multiple dead ends later (including one opportunist who had a good go at claiming it!) I finally found them.

They live in Chile and lost it while on holiday, so not surprising the New Zealand Police had no luck.

No photo, but I’ll let the Facebook dialog tell the rest.

This reunion made me realise how many tourists leave their rings behind in NZ, purely because they don’t know who to ask for help.

 

And so I joined The RingFinders.

Find lost ring Matauri Bay Northland Jewellery Recoveries

Find lost ring Matauri Bay Northland Jewellery Recoveries metal detector kerikeri lost ring Matauri Bay Northland Jewellery Recoveries

 

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Lost Ring at Russell Beach Found for Christmas

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Dec 21st, 2017

I received a call while at work from a very upset lady, the usual story of a slightly-too-large ring and the sea.

The previous day she had gone for a morning swim, and returned to discover she and her ring had parted company.

I knew the beach in question is a very mobile shingle and notorious for ‘swallowing’ rings so time was of the essence. It already had a two-tide head start…

Next low was in two hours, so I cashed in some of my leave and headed away in order to catch it.
An hour and a half and a car ferry later, I arrived on site. Looking at the steep beach angle, coupled with recent wind and wave conditions I could only realistically give her a 50:50 chance of finding it.

After a quick walk through of the timeline and reenacting the whats and wheres leading up to the loss, I marked out the area of highest probability and started searching between the tideline and the waist-deep point where it dropped away to deep water. Figured I’d do the hotspot first before getting the wetsuit on!

A lot of litter signals from can tabs and so forth caused several stops to listen carefully and determine if it was the ring… all were discounted for one reason or another.

Then, on the third line a strong clear tone and the scoop went in for a big bite out of the gravel. I checked the hole to make sure I had the target, dropped my marker float and waded ashore to empty the scoop.

Dumping the gravel onto the beach, sitting quite brazenly on top of the pile of stones was the ring, and in only 12 minutes from switching the machine on (Largely thanks to an extremely accurate start point).

Handed her the lost ring with a smile and a “Happy Christmas!” accompanied by a small round of applause from onlookers.

One extremely grateful, and very relieved couple.

Early Christmas Present

In the space of 30 or so hours, it had already sunk 6-8 inches. I was quietly pleased to have snatched this one back from the beach!

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