The ring was lost at Mount Maunganui beach (file picture). Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
An engagement ring that was lost in the sea at Mount Maunganui is the latest find for metal detectorist Oscar Parkinson, whose discoveries include 12 gold rings and half a kilo of silver
A couple were left in despair earlier this week after misplacing the engagement ring on the beach.
Parkinson told Afternoons with Emile Donovan he answered a plea via social media saying that an engagement ring had been lost at Mount Maunganui beach and asking if anyone with a metal detector could help search for it.
"I thought that basically I've got a bit of time spare, I've got actually two metal detectors, so I might as well go and give it my best shot."
Parkinson said he was joined in the search by his father and a school mate.
"So two of us on metal detectors and then one of us had a sand scoop for actually scooping up the items and yeah so we thought we'd head down to the beach about low tide and see what the story was."
When they got to the beach, Michael, who had lost the ring was there, he said.
"He told us that basically they'd been bodysurfing the evening prior and he'd had the ring in his back pocket and he thought he'd lost it in around about waist to chest deep water."
Michael gave them an area of about 200-300 metres where he thought he had lost the ring, Parkinson said.
"So we had a little bit of an area to work with, but really it's a bit of a guessing game as to trying to figure out what the tides might have done, what the currents might have done and just basically giving it your best guess."
Somebody else with a detector was already there and they were combing the wet sand up to the water, he said.
Here you could see your footsteps on the wet sand so it was effectively possible to "grid search" the area, he said.
"But in the water it's not quite so easy, you can't tell where you've been, so you basically just have to hope you're not doing the same area over and over."
Ferguson said his team walked into the water at what they thought was about the right depth and "just started walking and started swinging".
It was close to two hours before his father got the signal that they had found something, he said.
"In the water like that it's not easy because the currents sort of push the detector one way and then they push it the other way. You have to go really slowly to make sure you're doing the area well."
There had only been one signal the entire time up to that point which turned out to be half a hair clip, he said.
Eureka moment
"After probably close to two hours we got another signal and we thought 'Oh that's probably more promising'."
It was difficult working in the water with the sand scoop as the holes it made then get filled with water by the waves, potentially burying any item even more deeply, he said.
"So it seemed like the item was just going deeper and deeper in the hole and we thought 'oh no, we're likely to just lose whatever it is it's going to get too deep."
They decided to take two big scoops of sand out of the hole and dump it into the water before the next wave came, he said.
"We did the first scoop and it was lifted out of the water, intending to just dump it straight back in the water, and we all looked over at the scoop and right on top sticking out of the sand was the band of the engagement ring shining in the sun."
They shouted at Michael who was close by to let him know they had found the ring.
"He was over the moon, he didn't think it was going to be found so he was absolutely shocked basically."
Not the first ring that Ferguson's found
Twenty-year-old Ferguson said he saw people doing metal detecting on the beach when he was about five or six, and he saw the TV shows about it.
"I thought wow, that's real life treasure hunting, that looks like a bit of me."
When he was seven he saved a small amount and bought a very cheap metal detector.
"I didn't have much success around about but eventually after probably having it for about a year, got a little gold ring and from that moment on I was just hooked," he said.
Parkinson said he had found a few bits and pieces over the years, including a total of 12 gold rings and probably 0.5kg of silver.
He had just sold many of the items he had found to help with a house deposit, he said.
Metal detectors work by sending an electro-magnetic signal into the ground and if the signal hits something conductive such as a piece of metal, then it energises that piece of metal, he said.
"Then that item sends a signal basically back up to the detector. So effectively it sends a signal down, when it gets a signal back it beeps and tells you there's something there."