Kerikeri Tag | Page 3 of 3 | The Ring Finders

Gold and Diamond Ring Lost at Kerikeri, New Zealand – Found!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626

Barrys wife was swimming and playing with her grand-daughter in the sea in the Bay of Islands, NZ, last night.
As she went to do a handstand she felt her precious gold and diamond ring slip off her finger and into the cloudy water.

Instantly lost…

Fabricated from her mothers jewellery, she was understandably very distraught – returning with a torch that night to search for the lost ring.
Again she tried, at sunrise this morning, she was back with a mask and snorkel – but to no avail.

Shortly afterwards, Barry found me through a web search for ring recoveries, finding lost rings and metal detectors and gave me a call.
As luck would have it, it was just approaching low tide and I was only 30min away so threw the kit in the wagon and headed out.
On arrival, I saw she was standing diligently at ‘Spot X’. I went through the backstory of how she lost the ring, state of tide, depth of water, whether she was on shingle, sand or silt underfoot etc and started to work the grid.

Starting in the water, I worked back and forth along the beach. Ploughing my way through the many trash signals, digging a few that were too close to call. Eventually I emerged onto the beach and continued up past the depth she had indicated (Assume Nothing, Believe No-One, Check Everything)

There was evidence of recent detecting with scoop holes in the water and backfilled holes on the beach, as expected at this time of year with the influx of holidaymakers, although they were unlikely to have been created in the short period between time of loss and my arrival.

Initial search area was eventually cleared with no result, I discussed the search with them and we shifted slightly to one side towards where they had come down onto the beach.
Seconds into the new area, less than a metre outside the original grid boundary(!)  I caught the ring, tucked snugly into the gravel about 2-3 inches down – To an ecstatic cheer from it’s owner…and I went home to finish my lunch 🙂

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Wedding Ring Lost When Boat Capsized in Surf – Found!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Ring Finder – Ring Recovery Specialist…Lost ring? Lost necklace? Lost keys?… Metal Detector Service – Call ASAP 021 401626

Tim had lent his boat to his mates for a fishing trip out from Matauri Bay in Northland, New Zealand.

Tragically the boat went broadside and suffered a capsize as they were coming back in through the surf and was, shall we say, pummelled.
His gold wedding ring had been in a cupholder onboard and during the subsequent carnage in the waves, was lost.

Spin forward three months.  Tim made contact with me and asked what the chances were… Matauri Bay? Ocean beach, with such a big head start? I wasn’t too optimistic – Until I heard that the guys in the boat had taken note of the approximate location which at least gave me some sort of start point, and I knew there would be other items lost such as fishing gear which would assist me in pinpointing the exact location. The time elapsed was still a real concern though, as we had had a couple of good storms including a 1 in 500yr monster that wrought destruction across the region – with seas to match, and Matauri has no significant shallow hard bedding layer for the ring to settle on.
I let him know the odds were less than great, but would have a look to gauge whether it was worth actively searching or adding it to my ‘cold-case’ book.

I met Tim onsite the following day, and recapped the events of the day with him.

Without having one of the guys actually involved in the capsize there, it was Chinese Whispers over the phone….describing a featureless beach.
You have to start somewhere, and I had already started working a grid when he arrived, initially focussing on locating any concentration of targets.
It was not to be, and an endless stream of light targets of bottle caps, aluminium can tabs and corroded foil told me the sand was now deep over the site. Winding the machine to “redline” gave a few very rusty jigheads from a long way down but they looked too old – and I can guarantee Tims boat wasn’t the first, nor will it be the last to get trashed here.

Despite this false start, I was confident that I could find the debris field – Given time.
Over the course of many 2 and 3am starts, the big tides are never sympathetic to normal business hours, I started to pick up a few lead sinkers. Then a small tackle box and a large knife, both really deep down… Tim confirmed it was his knife and I could finally put a pin in the map! The only problem was the depth of sand and the now common metal detectors carried by holidaymakers at the local motorcamp just 50m away…

More visits and many night starts made for some looong days at my regular job, although bits of fishing kit started to consistently surface. I needed to clear all the jigs, lead, hooks etc in order to be able to hear the ring which would likely be under all this ‘noise’.

The other morning saw another rainy 2am start to catch the big tides. I settled in on the mark and quickly started digging fishing gear right on the low water line, a pair of pliers, knife, hooks – This was promising, very promising as it was obvious some sand had been lost.
I stayed in that same spot, digging target after target…after target. The pouch was starting to slide off my hips I had so much fishing kit in it. But no ring, and after 4 hours, the tide was chasing me out. I knew that if I walked away now I might lose the chance for another few months, or even years. What started out as wet sand was now wading depth with gumboots long since filled with water! I carried on digging oh, so many, many irritating small sinkers as the first light of dawn grew in the sky, and the cutoff to call it off and head off to work drew closer.

Yet another 1oz weight, check the hole, another, check the hole….a soft tone, down deep. There it was again. A half dozen quick deep scoops lifted it out of the hole and a flash of yellow in the scoop.

Tim was on holiday when I sent him the TXT and photo of the finds, asking why he uses solid gold fishing weights!
Two weeks later, this afternoon and after six months apart, the ring finally made its way home.

Three months head start, and another three to locate it – Ringfinding is definitely not for the impatient

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Lost Phone Found Buried in Sawdust Pile – Kerikeri, Northland.

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Lost rings in summer, phones in winter…

Had a call from Greg this evening, asking if I would be able to find his lost cellphone.

Backstory was he’d been working in a firewood yard today shifting logs to be split and last remembered seeing his phone a few hours previously. It was now going straight to answerphone so ringing it was ineffective.
We went through retracing his steps and narrowed it down to a corridor of sawdust and chippings in amongst the logs, maybe 5m wide by 20m long. A 12 tonne digger was sitting on the principle area of interest, so I first scanned the area behind it so he could walk the digger (and it’s enormous metal presence) backwards. As expected in an industrial environment, there were a lot of junk signals messing around in the headphones, with one promising false start that turned out to be a flattened drink can.

Once the digger had been moved, I then started to clear the area where it had been and very quickly picked up a solid ‘phoney’ sort of signal.

Digging down into the sawdust, I gingerly grabbed a very hot, angry and unstable iPhone, crushed by the digger unfortunately and the battery was starting to meltdown, but his precious SIM card was safely recovered – Not to mention averting possible fire issues had the phone ignited later in the evening whilst buried in sawdust…

            Not Rated to 12 Tonnes!

 

 

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Kerikeri Phone Lost in Long Grass – Found!

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Yesterday, Seans young son was doing some TikTok clips with his friend.

For what ever reason, the phone was flung away to the side – and into the deep mattress of overgrown Kikuyu grass around them.  Efforts by Sean and his son to find the phone failed to locate the phone visually (flat battery, so no ringtones) and so Sean turned to the internet for assistance to try and recover the lost phone.

It was a reasonably straightforward job,  with no interference from electric fences which are very common in this rural area. With a systematic approach, and based on experience with recovering ‘thrown’ items, the phone was quickly located outside the indicated area, as they so often are.

It was a sheepish, but relieved lad who got called over to collect his phone out of the grass.

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