Search for lost wedding ring bears fruit — 1100km away
THEY say marriage is a journey but for one Napier man, it was his wedding ring that went for the biggest trip.
Don Alexander’s ring travelled 1100km in a box of fruit he was sorting for the Ahuriri Rotary Club’s citrus drive.
He might never have got it back, had not a keeneyed business owner spotted a glint in a gravel driveway in Dunedin a few days later.
Mr Alexander, of Taradale, helps coordinate the annual drive, where fruit is collected and shipped to the South Island.
While collecting and packing fruit one afternoon, he suddenly realised his wedding ring was missing.
‘‘We were transferring fruit a lot, from the boot of our truck, or a trailer, into these fruit bins.’’
He said his finger must have shrunk a bit over the almost 62 years he had been married to his wife, Shirley, because the ring was a bit loose.
He was annoyed when he realised it had disappeared.
‘‘Because, actually, I have lost it before,’’ he said with a laugh.
In fact, the wedding ring has disappeared from his finger a total of four times — once while throwing rotten potatoes into a field during his tenure as principal of Pakowhai School, once while gardening for his daughter in Wellington and another time in a chair at home.
This time, after retracing his steps, he contacted the Dunedin East Rotary Club, where four boxes of citrus fruit he had packed was headed.
‘‘We got a call back saying they had packaged all the fruit, ready to go out, and hadn’t found my ring.’’
Hopes still high, he thought it could have ended up in another lot of fruit being shipped to another area of the South Island.
About three days later, he got a message saying Timeless — which had sorted the fruit in Dunedin — had found a ring in its driveway.
Ring finder, Timeless owner Barry Johnston, said he noticed the ring sitting on the driveway, because it was a different colour from the surrounding gravel.
He imagined the ring had got caught in a gap in the fruit box, which was why the team did not find it while unpacking the fruit.
As for Mr Alexander, he said he was grateful to the team at Timeless and the Dunedin East Rotary Club, for finding the ring and sending it back.
He said his wife Shirley was also grateful to see the return of the ring, joking he would not ‘‘run off and find someone else now’’. — Hawke’s Bay Today