Treasure hunters in Gordonton

“Something’s going on at the park…” Number 8 Network loves a mystery, so when this call came on Sunday afternoon, we raced off to investigate.

And found Ben Wilson from Hawkes Bay, with his cousin, out looking for treasure near the Cenotaph.

Ben tells me he’s a contract milker and as it’s off-season now, he’s got a bit of time to pick up his old hobby of metal detecting.

“We’re searching for old artifacts, mainly coins. We’ve found some old pennies – with King George V, from 1931 – and a couple of New Zealand pennies from the 1960s. In addition, some one and two cent pieces.”

The pair had had a look around Hukanui Park and turned up a few present day coins – probably from the Country Market but it is the old coins he’s really keen on.

“I used to do this a lot in Europe, I started when I was 17 living in Holland and I’m 52 now. Back home I found mainly silver coins, and some old brass tobacco cases from 1600. It all tells a story – at one place in Hawke’s Bay I found 13 silver coins in a hole, all Victorian, before 1900. Somebody probably lost them, that’s a week’s worth of money.

“People go places and they lose things.”

And then others come along when the cows are dry, find the things and think about the people and the stories behind them.  Nice to meet you, Ben.

 

To find out more about metal detectors, click here.

 

PS  Number 8 Network can vouch for the fact that our treasure hunters were especially careful to not damage the Gordonton turf in any way – you could hardly tell they’d been there.

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