Hamilton Metal Detectorist Recovers Diamond Ring Lost in Swimming Hole

A diamond engagement ring that slipped from Kaela Ivory-Taranaki's finger in a Hamilton swimming hole had everything working against its return: two metres of cold water, a sandy creek bed along the Kaniwhaniwha Track, and a crowd of swimmers obscuring the search area. What it had working for it was Garth Walton.

Walton bought his first metal detector in 2018 after watching YouTube videos, and in the years since he has found and reunited countless heirlooms and pieces of jewelry with their owners. He had never attempted underwater detecting before Ivory-Taranaki's ring went missing. He gathered rough coordinates from the couple, armed himself with goggles, a snorkel, and a detector rated for submersion, and waded in. "I've actually never underwater detected before, so I didn't have the gear. I just had some goggles and snorkel and my detector can detect underwater," he said.

For roughly an hour he worked the creek floor, sinking to two metres at points and surfacing with nothing but a few laundry tokens. Cold and discouraged, he was preparing to leave when instinct pulled him one last pass. At waist depth his machine fired a strong signal. He pressed a pinpointer, a small handheld locating device, into the sand and felt the ring. "I was shaking like a chihuahua in the rain," Walton said. Ivory-Taranaki was in awe: "I honestly didn't think that it would be returned. Like I thought, it was gone forever."

The ring was exactly where she had dropped it, which points to one of the least-discussed truths about losing jewelry in water: pieces often don't travel far, but they sink fast and sand closes over them within hours. For owners of vintage and antique engagement rings, that burial is only one hazard in a longer chain of vulnerabilities.

Cold water is the most insidious. Fingers contract rapidly when submerged, and a ring sized for a warm hand can loosen by half a size or more. Older settings compound the risk. Prongs on antique and estate rings, particularly Victorian claw settings and Art Deco fishtail mountings, wear thin over decades of daily contact. A prong that once gripped a stone with four or six points of pressure may have softened to two. Resized shanks are another weak point: a shank stretched or compressed more than two sizes tends to thin at the adjustment seam, making it more likely to distort or split under thermal stress. Older European shanks were often crafted in lower-karat golds, the 9ct and 15ct standards common to British estate pieces, which wear faster than modern 18ct settings.

If a piece does go missing in water, the first thirty minutes matter most, before current or foot traffic disturbs the sediment. Mark the exit point from the water as precisely as possible, photograph the surrounding landmarks from multiple angles, and note water depth and visibility. Contact a New Zealand detectorist network such as NZ Ring Finders, which dispatches volunteer hobbyists across Aotearoa in response to requests sent to their catalogue of members. Walton, like most detectorists, helps people out of the goodness of his heart. Provide as specific a location sketch as possible, the way Ivory-Taranaki's couple did when they briefed Walton, and have ring photographs and insurance records on hand to confirm identification.

For antique rings specifically, an annual inspection with a bench jeweler should assess prong tips for rounding, shank thickness at the base, and the security of any stone in its setting. Remove the ring before swimming. It takes thirty seconds and costs nothing. Walton's gear was not as waterproof as it was supposed to be, and he was still waiting for it to dry out when Ivory-Taranaki got her ring back. Not every owner will find a Garth Walton available on short notice.