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.
