ruakaka Tag | The Ring Finders

Tearful Loss of Wedding Ring at Ruakaka, Tearful Reunion When Found

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)

A very tearful Laura phoned – she had just watched her wedding ring vanish into the sand beneath her feet while in the sea at Ruakaka.

Her husband immediately grabbed the pink swimming goggles off the indignant daughter and he spent a long time searching for it until he was, as Laura described, “mildly hypothermic”.

I had recently returned a lost ring for Jax, Laura’s mother in law, and Jax recommended that Laura contact me immediately.

Which she did.

In the busiest summer season yet, I had literally only just returned from another ocean recovery 150km away near Whangarei and was exhausted. However, the emotion and desperation on the other end of the phone was very real – So I grabbed a strong coffee, some food, and threw the wet gear back in the car and made the two hour drive south.

I knew this part of the beach is metal detected every night at this time of year, and I was determined that this ring wouldn’t become part of someone’s collection.

On arrival the family met me, and Laura took me down to the beach and indicated the corridor where she thought the ring lay.

Fortunately, after a few days of strong offshore winds the surf was uncharacteristically very small for this coast. This was partially offset though by the corridor being right in the middle of the narrow surf lifesaving patrolled area, so lots of people to work around…

I did a quick scoping search, however this yielded nothing and ultimately I had to resort to my proven techniques to ensure every square inch was covered.

The beach was relatively trash-free, so the interruptions to the background threshold tones were few, and quickly dismissed.

Line by line I slowly closed off the indicated area, and I was starting to pre-plan the next search phase.

Suddenly a bold, gold tone in the headphones – The scoop came up out of the water and I rinsed the sand away.

There was Laura’s gold wedding ring.

I held it up to Laura, sitting on the beach, and she let loose with whoops and yells – closely followed by the rest of the beach!
They had by now all heard the story about this strange person zig-zagging around in the waves and had become invested in what I refer to as “The Worlds Most Boring Spectator Sport”.

After the excitement subsided, the handshakes and hugs done, I parked the car in the shade and slept solidly for a few hours before the drive home.

Gold Ring lost in Sea at Uretiti Beach – Found !

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)

Frances was enjoying a swim with her friends at Uretiti Beach, near Whangarei after a round of golf.

While in the water, she suddenly felt her very sentimental gold ring slip off her finger. Looking down, she could see it although couldn’t get to it. After repeated efforts she finally lost sight of it – Gone.

She was understandably very upset when she phoned me, the emotion of losing an obviously very special item was clearly evident over the phone and she wasn’t entirely convinced it would be worth trying to find it again.

I assured her that after hearing the details I didn’t consider it irretrievably lost, and made arrangements to drive down the following morning.

Onsite, we walked down to, and along the beach a little way.

She had taken a photo of the dunes, which helped narrow down where they had been – Nothing boosts the odds in your favour like having an accurate start point!

I walked down the beach and straight into the tide – with a 150km drive each way, I needed to ensure I found it on this visit.

The waves were small today, which was a pleasant change for this ocean beach

After about an hour and a half, I lifted the scoopful of sand and there was a lovely gold band.  I held it up to show Frances who was up by the dunes and waded in.

On handing it to Frances, I joked, “This where you say it’s not yours” with a chuckle.

I stopped grinning as soon as she replied, “It’s not mine.”

“What?”

Back into the tide.

Thirty minutes later, another ring.  The reaction when I showed Frances was enough to tell me that this time it was definitely the right one.

That job done, I now start the sleuthing to locate the owner of the other ring…