The ring went missing while the couple was out on a relaxing paddle on the Kiah River with other cruise ship passengers and tour operators Jenny and Arthur Robb.

The owner of the ring was kayaking with his wife and two other couples as part of a three-hour Kiah Wilderness tour when, while swimming, the ring slipped off his finger and into the clear waters of the Kiah. 

“He waded in and swam three or four strokes,” Ms Robb said. “He then stopped, and it looked like he was looking for something.”

“He said ‘Um, I’ve just dropped a ring in the water’.

“I asked, ‘not a wedding ring?’ and he said ‘yeah’.”

For several months the ring had sat loosely on the man’s finger. The couple had only been married 11 months and the man had not had his precious wedding ring resized.

It now lay somewhere in the golden sands at the bottom of the Kiah River.

After the man’s announcement, the Robbs and other tour attendees sprang into action and started to comb the river bed. 

Working against a two-metre tide and waves created from fellow boaters the search party had to call off the hunt. 

“We also had to get them back to their cruise ship!” Ms Robb said.

The man and his wife reluctantly returned to port and their waiting cruise ship.

“I took the man’s phone number on the off chance that it would be found, but I think he was resigned to the fact that he would need a new wedding ring,” Ms Robb said. 

It was over a late lunch that Mr and Ms Robb decided that they would have one last look, grabbing their kayaks and snorkels.

“We didn’t want to left thinking ‘what if?’,” she said. “With one more look we would know that we tried.”

 In a stroke of luck, but also sheer determination, Mr Robb found the ring within 10 minutes of re-entering the water.

“Armed with a mask and snorkel he dove down and came back up 10 minutes later with the ring on his pinky,” Ms Robb said. 

“Paddling madly back to shore” a call was made to Natalie Godward at Cruise Eden who was able to organise for the ring to be returned to its owner. This time they ensured the ring would not slip away again. 

“I had the ring in a brown envelope. Arthur took it off me and stapled it all across the top.”

The securely packaged ring was passed on to a security guard who was able to get it on the last tender of the day. 

The man and his wife were thrilled, and no doubt a little shocked, to get the ring back and they now have a story that they are not likely to forget. 

“The river has many stories,” Ms Robb said.