Tutukaka Ring, « Lost gardening » – Found under the house.
Wayne called me, hoping I would be able to find his lost 50yr old gold wedding ring at Tutukaka.
I headed down from the Bay of Islands straight after work, and was met by an extremely anxious Wayne thanking me for my rapid response.
He took me around the garden, retracing his steps that day – Watering, weeding, clearing a drain, and digging wet grass out from under a lawn mower.
There were several likely spots, cleaning out the drainage ditch was top of the list though.
Wayne had been piling the vegetation on the sides of the drain, and I systematically worked through both the drain and the piles as I worked my way along.
I reached the end of the drain with no luck, and was about to head over to start in the garden, when Wayne remembered he had also been under the house to retrieve some items.
On hands and knees, hands slipping through the loose sand? This was now the next likely spot.
I crawled under, following the fresh tracks Wayne had left as he made his way deeper under the house – undisturbed since he was last under here.
Having cleared his entry path, I moved across to cover his exit route.
Off to the side was a single isolated depression in the sand, where a hand had been outstretched – possibly as he turned around to shuffle his way out.
I swung the coil out over it, and a solid double tone of a very shallow target rang out.
My hand closed on the imprint and as the dry sand filtered out through my fingers, I felt the unmistakable shape of a wedding ring.
Wayne was rapt.
