A treasure hunter with "a heart of gold" is being credited for reuniting a woman with her lost engagement ring.

A treasure hunter with "a heart of gold" is being credited for reuniting a woman with her lost engagement ring.

Sarah Lindsay lost her $10,000 diamond and platinum ring on Auckland's Omana Beach in January.

Lindsay was with her young son, friends and children on the beach in knee deep water she felt her the ring slip off her finger into the high tide water.

Frantic fumbling around in the water failed to retrieve the ring.

"I had four little kids in the sea with me on our hands and knees trying to find it."

Determined to find the ring, a "devastated" Lindsay returned at the 6am low tide with her friends.


"We sort of gridded it off and tried to find it for three hours," the Whitford resident said.

Losing the ring made the already downcast Lindsay feel numb.

Over the last few months her family had several setbacks - and now she had to tell husband James she'd lost the ring he'd bought a year before the couple married on a Fiji island eight years ago.

"I can't even describe the feeling, there was so much grief going on in our house at that moment."


Lindsay's mum had been diagnosed with cancer and the Sarah and James' dream house being built in Maraetai was way behind schedule.

"But finding the ring was the one good thing that happened."

Fast forward to Easter weekend and enter Ian "Lord of the Rings" Scott and his state of the art metal detecting gear.

Scott had got wind of the news of the missing ring and within 10 minutes of searching, he fished it out from the low tide sands.

"It's incredible, it's so emotional, I bawled my eyes out," Lindsay said.

Scott said when he was asked to find the ring, he rated his chances at 80 per cent of finding it.

He doesn't have tried and true methods, just high-end gear and good local knowledge and "learned experience".

Since he reignited his childhood love for treasure hunting five years ago, Scott estimates he's found more than 200 rings.

After placing an ad in the Pohutukawa Grapevine he's got regular requests to sniff out lost items.

"It's an addiction, I've always loved it as a kid, my grandfather used to take me beachcombing to find things."

But Scott doesn't believe in finders keepers.

Without charge Scott tries to reunite rings with owners -  it took some convincing from Lindsay to allow Scott to let them show their gratitude.

"He tried to give back our little reward we gave him ... he's incredible that he would do this and not expect anything," Lindsay said.

"I would say he's just a good guy, one of those elusive good guys."

Image and Article Credit: http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/weddings/78737783/lost-engagement-ring-found-by-treasure-hunter-with-heart-of-gold