Photo: photo 123RF
When Matt Butterfield's son lost his phone and ID overboard during a West Coast fishing trip, they resigned them to the watery depths.
But two weeks later, fortune swung their way.
A boat trawling near Ross plucked the lost phone out from 400 metres deep, saw the ID and got in touch, posting about the discovery online.
Matt Butterfield could not quite believe their luck.
He was grateful the fishermen went to the effort to reunite his son with not just his lost phone, but his bank card, drivers licence and student ID.
"The guy's already sent me a photo of the envelope. He's sending it back," he said.
"Pretty old school hospitality."
They were a keen fishing family and it had been their first overnight trip chasing southern bluefin tuna in the Hokitika Trench, Butterfield said.
It had been the middle of the night when the phone went overboard as his son tried to grab a floating fish dropped by a trawler to use for bait.
His son had yet to hear the good news, as of Friday afternoon, as he was commercial diving in the Wairarapa and had not been reached yet on his new phone.
"I don't know if he's got new ID yet. I was actually, ironically, just sorting out his bank card this morning for him," Butterfield said.
Matt Butterfield was looking forward to touching bases with the fishermen when they returned to the West Coast.
"We'll go and have a beer next time we're over there," he said.
He had not lost hope that the phone might yet be resurrected, saying it was a new waterproof phone so they would not give up until they had tried to get it working again.
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