New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

First "Contract Hit"with the new machine :)

Approached by sheepish gentleman just as I was packing the gear into the car. Could I help him find his Omega watch, lost yesterday..

I said I'd give it a go, but given the numbers of people on the beach, it was possible it was long gone.

He showed me the towel spot, and it was obvious it had been well turned over by them. But at least it was a good solid start point.
Took maybe 30 seconds and two handfuls of sand to reunite them.

Was rather grateful.

Edited by user Thursday, 9 January 2014 11:33:48 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Good reward. and great Job with Excal :-)
Is this is the Andrew's Excal that you bought?


I was at Waiheke last weekend, Found Iphone 5 In the middle of Road (cars were passing buy, but didnt run it over), still had battery 50% so we waited for several hours till got a call,
Lady was pushy and quickly ened the call when we aid to come over to the beach to pick it up,
where on the phone i DID MENTION_ WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE A REWARD

She came over quickly grabbed the phone and just said "thank you" ,
I asked politely, Is that it? just "thank you"?
- she replied, did you expect anything else?

I really wanted to say that if she can afford 1100$ phone on 50-100$ monthly plan, she can afford bringing 50-100$ reward. as would cost her at least 100$ access fee in insurance...
OR! at least bring couple of icecreams and coffees to us, as it was hot sunny day out there.
- however i replied, "nothing,nothing go have a good day. "

As i am constantly getting scenarios that people say just "Thank you" or "Thanks God its is found" - will be Tossing shit away, taking money of lost wallets and selling phones for parts.

That is no GOD calls them and returns phones, wallets and watches .. it is US, ME and you.

Sorry. just wanted to share/vent this here :-)
My point is, when next time you will be asked to help find stuff- set a right expectation, that your time, effort , expertise and gear cost money, so before you start looking - charge is XXX$ and if found, you want XXX$ or what ever.

Imagine, you call Plumber, because you have leaky pipe.
He comes over, lookes at the pipe and just tightens the bolt cos it got loose. all job in 1 minute.
- And you like... "Oh Thank you, is that is all what was wrong?"
- Plumber says"have a nice day" and leave...
Does that happen? NO, you will be charged Call out fee 75 +$ and the job 100$

Those who still do it for free, because they get a fuzzy feeling in the stomach - note,Karma is Karma, but Petrol money, Money for new Propointer, and so on a bit more tangible .

Please be careful replying further to my post ;-) will strongly moderate any flaming comments :-)

I have never received a reward either for finding peoples things (IPhone 5 included)... It doesn't bother me much as it wasn't mine and I wasn't looking for anything in return... feels good to just do the right thing.

But it doesn't hurt to get a nice reward either ;)... Well done on the find and reward :D

Discovered a promising beach while browsing through GoogleEarth last week, well off the beaten track and tucked away in a little corner of the Western lands so made a road trip today.

On arrival at the end of the metalled road I was disappointed to see it was shingle with outcrops of oyster-covered rocks poking through, but at least it wasn't mud - and since I was here...

Low tide worked well with first light and as I had allowed a full day at this spot I decided to work a tight pattern and hug the waters edge as it came in.
Couple of sinkers initially from the rocks at the end of the beach, as expected, followed by a few of the standard 1 and 5cents - looked promising.

Took about half an hour to work the length of the beach and by the time I'd completed two lengths it was clear this was probably virgin territory.

By high tide at about 12, I was being pushed up against the kikuyu covered bank and I'd lost probably about half my body weight in sweat so called it a day. Back to the car and downed a couple of litres of water before having a preliminary sort through. Excellent haul, in terms of sheer numbers of finds if nothing else. Only pulled a couple of bits of space junk, but one section was dozens of copper nails - more than likely a drifting rowing boat had arrived here to die many years ago, saved one for the collection.

Notables were: Part of an oil lamp, clay pipe stem (slip cast), couple of cartridge cases, Junk copper ring, Cap bomb (the ones that had the plastic tail fins ±1980's?), couple of half pennies, four pennies, bit of small change from the USA and UK, and a 100 franc coin from French Polynesia - Didn't expect that one! Huge haul of pre-moderns and a small handful of modern-day rusties. The $7 in spendable goldies didn't even come close to covering the fuel, but it was a good day.

Haven't started cleaning them properly yet, gonna grab a beer and then hit the sack for now.

Good mixed haul. Lot of digs there Mudwiggle, big day.

.

Ahh but was your presenter found on the beach. If not he is an impostor I say. :-)

Great going on the Gold MW .
Creamer may go GRRRRRRR.
I would be happy with one gold a month too.

MK

Yep sand is from the beach so he qualifies. :-)
So now there are two.


MK

Mini road trip with Creamer this morning.
Arrived at the hot tip, walked backwards and forwards until the rain drifted in, came home.

New bit of real estate for me, and the fallout from summer was evident...including 'thousands' of crown caps and tear tabs - even down as far as 30-40cm which got a bit tedious after a few hours, but the digging paid off with some bling seeing the light of day again.

Nice haul of $1 & $2's

Diamonds!

Very nice ring courtesy of a beach hunt before work - A Warehouse-wonder with 21 teeny-tiny stones, half carat all up and set in sterling. But hey, a diamond is a diamond....