Lost ring found at Tāhunanui Beach

When Holly Cumming lost a sentimental ring at Tāhunanui Beach earlier this year, she thought she would never see it again.

However, thanks to the local metal-detecting community, she has now been reunited with the special piece of jewellery.

The ring, made by local jeweller Benjamin Black and gifted to Holly by her late nana, disappeared when Holly was swimming at the beach in early January.

“Nana gave it to me for my 21st birthday, so it is very special to me,” says Holly, who lives in Auckland.

“She passed away in September last year, which was a difficult time. Our family always goes down to Nelson each Christmas and we kept that tradition going last year.”

Holly says she was “absolutely devastated” when she realised the ring was not on her finger.

“Losing something that my nana had given me, with her passing away still being quite raw, was hard.”

Holly and her mum decided to return to the beach at low tide to see if they could find it.

“We mapped out where I was standing when I dropped it, but couldn’t see a thing.”

Holly then joked that they should get a metal detector - and low and behold, a man with a metal detector walked up to them.

“We couldn’t believe our eyes. We had a chat with him, his name was Tony, and he pulled hundreds of rings out of his back pocket. Unfortunately, mine wasn’t one of them, but he was so lovely and willing to try and find my ring,” she says.

“He spent the next couple of hours pacing the area we mapped out. He really went out of his way. We even saw him the next day when we drove past the beach, but he didn’t find it.”

Fast forward to late February, and Holly got a call from Benjamin Black saying that someone with a metal detector had handed in her ring.

This time it was another local metal detectorist, Cam Jeyes. He had seen the jeweller’s mark on the ring and returned it to them. Then, they were able to track down Holly.

“I was absolutely shocked,” says Holly. “I didn’t expect it at all, and it was just a few days after my nana’s birthday, which was quite special. We’d been thinking about her a lot over that time. It was like nana had found it.”

The ring has since been returned to Holly, who is now being “extra cautious” when she goes swimming.

“Every time I go to the beach, I make sure I’m not wearing it.”

It’s not the first time Cam has reunited a precious ring with its owner and he says it’s always a “good feeling”.

In December 2021, Cam found a wedding ring that had been lost in the sand at Rabbit Island for four years.

The owner of the ring, Josh, happened to be surfing at the beach at the same time Cam was doing a regular sweep of the beach.

When they returned to their cars, that happened to be parked next to each other, the pair got chatting about the lost ring and Cam asked, “your name’s not Josh, is it?”

The ring was engraved with the words Josh and Helen and so was returned.

Cam says it’s an unwritten rule with detecting that you try to find the owner of anything sentimental.

“Some of the items go to the police station but I like the personal touch of trying to find the owners myself. Social media is great for that these days.”

Cam, who has pursued metal detecting as a hobby for around three years, says he is a bit of a “history buff” and finds plenty of rings amongst the old coins.

“We are digging quite deep in the sand - these items could have been sitting there for hundreds of years.”

Cam’s one piece of advice to people is to engrave something on their precious jewellery.

“It makes it so much easier to hunt the owners down if they lose it.”

Cam says he is always looking for people who require their land scoured over for lost items, you can reach him through the ‘Nelson Metal Detectorist’ Facebook group.