Metaldetecting NZ - Returning lost memories and unearthing history

8am , 9 June, a lazy Sunday for me.. still asleep... got a txt from Luke that he buried his keys at Piha beach before going surfing. Almost a dead scenario as Piha located at our west cost with magnetic black sand and none of detectors work there. Good news were that keys were somewhere on the sand dune and no dipper than couple of inches. So we agreed to go over for the search .. :-)

:-)

The next one was a call from Will, his wife Mareeba was shuffling hay at stables and precious grandma's engagement ring slipped off somewhere in one of areas. The areas are not big, but a lot of iron around including nails in the wooden pallets. First area tried to cover for 10 minutes before Mareeba came over and told me the spot where she remembers she had her ring ON, as we all know that people think of place where they loose an item is not the actual place. So i started at the beginning of the path that lead to a ring drop. 5 Minutes later :

And a better picture indoors with more light: 

And last update is me trying out my 17 Inc coil... : 

I went to Cheltenham beach (Devonport) as we (MDs) know how much Aluminum is there and other rubbish. so i really wanted to test it out for depth and metal discrimination /target separation.

I would not say that i am impressed as disadvantages are obvious :

* Big depth, but to many targets under coil

* too heavy and gravity center becomes unbalanced - me elbow and back got soar after 3.5 hours of detecting, when using excal with straight shaft i could swing for 6 hours + without back pain.

Anyway, i wanted to get those deep 2$ coins others couldn't hear - got 8$ 

and i really wanted to find a ring .. pity i didnt specify what kind... : 

as you can see i picked very deep sinkers where others missed them. same will be with gold.

So lets try to bring gold count up....

see you all out there :-) Call me/ text me i need you guys, i would love to go out with buddy rather than by my self.

Regards max 

Almost gold Coin, found on the way to work on the walkway :-)

Was walking this morning and found an earring made out of Mexico "Wedding token" :

It is marked 9 ct :-)

06/06 outing with Dale helping me with my stress.

Good day,
i supposed to post this several days ago, but was not in the mood of writing the story.
Some of you know what i am going through now, so will understand that being in focus is almost impossible.

Anyway, after crying at my desk at work on Wednesday and being sent home by boss (Thank you Shane) because of my mental meltdown i called  in on Thursday morning that i would not come to work. I simply could not focus on anything, the settled areas of my life are falling apart and it is a VERY VERY hard time for me.

But thank you everyone who support me personally if not you - i do not know where i would be right now.

So later in the morning i got a call from Dale inviting to go for a detect as weather was absolutely perfect. So wiping my tears from the pillow i got ready and around 11 am we went to our first place - the Kohimarama beach... I would tell upfront being there was a huge challenge for me as it is the place where i got married just last year to the love of my life...

We met other detectorists there : Rix with a big spade..(fix your scoop or get stavr one as all of us did) , Treasureseeker wading in the water and his partner.

We stayed only for about 30 minutes as beach is off season and not much left on it, however i managed couple of $$ and 8 gram silver cross.

We left to have lunch(Dales's shout- Thank you very very much) at St.Helliers Indian cafe and were on they way to burned down mansion.

We couldn't really detect there as too much topsoil was put over the ruins.. i bet there are heapsof cool items underneath, but we couldn't get to them.
Dale was a bit dissapointed as he really wanted to find something cool that day, so i took him to the old park and the spot where i knew numerous coins are buried under 8 inches down.

The Third target for me was 1934 Shilling, so Dale was all in arms to find his silver.... after about couple of hours we had a pile of pennies and brown buggers...My other cool find was my 3d traders token :
Edward Waters Penny Traders Token :

That how it looks like in a better condition :




It was getting dark and Dale still was chasing his silver and was adamant that he is not going home without one....
... So he did with one! and the best one :

But there was another coin that i found... that was standing out only when i was washing the lot, is the Victorian Cumberland Jack 'To Hanover' Token :

Read HERE about the token

And the all of best finds together :

But what i really want to say is thank you everyone for  helping me to get through tough time.

P.S. Elena, i love you.

Dirt Hunt #6-7/2013 - Brisbane Trip

Good day my friends,
As my trip to Perth is still far ahead and i was sitting without a detector, mentally unstable due to relationship issues that are ongoing since January (that is a main reason for not detecting as much) i decided to fly to Brisbane to pick up CTX 3030 , meet a great couple that i got to know last year at Rarotonga- Greg and Ria and get a little bit of detecting.

I will say again, Thank you very much G&R to host me at such a short notice! (2 hour notice that i am booking flight and 3 hour flight itself). You are a wonderful couple and your 2 fluffy dogs are awesome :-)

I finished work around 5 on friday, run home, and realized that i need to get away. like now.... so i booked the flight and gone. On my way to airport, Dan sent me couple of motivational sms with his finds, so i was 100% sure that i am getting a detector to keep me occupied till august .

The story at the Brisbane ,

Greg really wanted to find something cool at WW2 site, so we went to one of them right after i picked up my machine from BrisbaneGold.
as for me- i wanted to find at least 2 things - the silver Australian coin and ...the Rising Sun.. i had one day, one shot to get it... Guess what? i made Greg very jealous :-)

More over i found the USA button with eagle that he wanted to find and as a super bonus a sunbaker 15gm Silver bracelet! :

On Sunday we decided to visit another WW2 site as Greg really wanted to find something positive, but the location was sinking in the swamp unfortunately and we found only some ammo, but the day was great ! :

The small rising sun pin was found in a park, where i picked up nice half penny with a ru on it :-)

The trip was awesome! i would love to come back!

see you soon with new finds :-)

Dirt Hunt #4/2013 - 4 Rings in a matter of 30 minutes !

I decided to take My E-trac for a spin before it sells off :-)
Didn't want to go to far away, so went to my usual 5 minute walk park that is overhunted by everyone in the last 30 years :-)

My first target was pulltab (as i wanted to dig all signals for gold) , seconds target was sweet silver sound, that i dug up without looking at the numbers :

The Next was 2c piece, but 4th Signal was a surface one, and here we come :

It is Indian Style ring, where stone is set the way it will touch the skin. i will defo need to test the stone ;-)

Then i had couple of 2-1c piece and got another Silver Signal!, i thought it would be a coin, but no :

In the next 3 targets a got a copper "love" ring making it 4 rings for the first 30 minutes of detecting :)
I really like the soil now- moist , but not leaky yet. so it was really easy to dig.

Here are all of the finds :

So once again, E-trac is still up for grabs for 1620$ :-) and as you can see - it does it job very well

Ring Sizer...

Hi All,
In a desperate attempt to rise money for my Australian trip, i will be selling my best ring finds with stones.
so to do it properly i needed the Ring Sizer.
For obvious reasons i looked up on trademe and snaped an awesome deal of Ring sizer + the set of Finger sizer for 30$ shipped!

So be ready for my a post with cool pictures of rings and price i want for them :-)

cheers, max 

Dirt Hunt #2/2013 - 4$ spill ;-)

Had about 1 hour last week to spare in the park, while waiting for Elena from work,

So used my Etrac to get some spare change :-) - so was digging only 12-3X 12-4X signals in a small area where people usually sit on the grass.
1 Hour- got about 15$ , not too bad :-) and here is a spill :