The cost of being: A public servant who took voluntary redundancy
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a public servant describes how gastric bypass surgery, a traumatic brain injury and taking voluntary redundancy have affected their finances.
Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.
Gender: Female.
Age: 38.
Ethnicity: Māori/NZ European.
Role: Currently unemployed, on a sabbatical after taking voluntary redundancy from the public service. I'm also receiving weekly compensation for a workplace accident (TBI) I had in 2023. Before being made redundant I was able to work 30 hours per week with my injury, and i'm working towards being able to return to FTW (40 hours) soon.
Salary/income/assets: Weekly accident compensation of $1450 in hand (80% of my previous earnings). Husband's annual income: $110,000. My KiwiSaver: $52,000. Husband's KiwiSaver: $42,000. Term deposit: $30,000. Shares: $10,500. Savings: $20,000. Most of the assets aside from KiwiSaver have come from my redundancy payout.
My living location is: Suburban.
Rent/mortgage per week: $800 per week between my husband and I for our mortgage. We purchased our three-bedroom Lower Hutt home in early 2018.
Student loan or other debt payments per week: $150 per week. This is on our mortgage but not included in the above amount. This is repaying money borrowed for gastric bypass surgery (best investment I ever made) and some credit card debt.
Typical weekly food costs
Groceries: $350 per week for the two of us. We are pretty bougie with our food spend – meat is free range and often organic, we buy artisan bread and locally roasted coffee beans. We do a Moore Wilsons shop once a fortnight, but the bulk of groceries are split between New World and Woolworths – I shop them online and pick up and whatever I need, I get it at whichever one is cheaper. For products we use a lot and are regularly on special, I stock up when on special.
Eating out: Maybe once a month, about $80 for us both. We ate out more before my brain injury, but loud restaurants aren't ideal while i'm recovering. Neither of us drink which saves lots, as does my gastric bypass surgery as I can't eat large amounts.
Takeaways: One or two times per month, about $40 per time. It's normally either Indian, Malaysian or Chinese as my stomach doesn't tolerate many takeaways these days. My meals need to have a solid amount of protein, and lots of veges.
Workday lunches: No workday for me! But while I was working, I'd take lunch most days. I'd maybe buy lunch once a fortnight, and spend about $12.
Cafe coffees/snacks: Since finishing work, I treat myself to three bought coffees per week – one on a Wednesday morning when I drop my husband at work (he works from home the rest of the week) and then one each weekend day when my husband and I take the dog to the beach. The other days I drink plunger coffee at home using locally roasted beans.
Other food costs: Not quite food, but related costs include a number of supplements I take because I've had gastric bypass surgery: protein powder, bariatric level multivitamin, iron, calcium and – to help my brain injury recover – creatine, fish oil and magnesium. Also the cost of our fur babies – we have a dog with multiple health issues which requires prescription diet and expensive monthly shots, as well as a cat. Our total animal spend is about $250 per week.
Savings: We save about $200 per fortnight currently, to help with future bills mainly. Some of the assets we have will be used towards some work on our home.
I worry about money: Rarely.
Three words to describe my financial situation: Comfortable, privileged and learning (I've only started saving and investing in the last year).
My biggest edible indulgence would be: Little Spoon Sourdough Crumpets. They're like $13 for a pack of six, but SO SO good – especially the chocolate ones!
In a typical week my alcohol expenditure would be: Zero. I stopped drinking almost 18 months ago. My husband hasn't drunk in about six years.
In a typical week my transport expenditure would be: Our car is super economical so only about $20 between the two of us on petrol. I have my Snapper card for trips into Wellington when I don't want/need to drive, but it's pretty sporadic while i'm not working.
I estimate in the past year the ballpark amount I spent on my personal clothing (including sleepwear and underwear) was: So much. Clothing and fashion are one of my true loves. As I've got older, i'm all about being super comfortable while also looking great, and i'm super fussy about fabric, preferring only cotton and linen. I absolutely love Kowtow – the brand ethics align with mine, and the pieces make me happy. The girls in the Wellington store are amazing, and I love going in there (they also have the best changing rooms ever). I've recently discovered the NZ lingerie brand Ohen and am currently replacing all my bras and underwear with their glorious products. I also love second hand shopping – mostly online via Trade Me and Designer Wardrobe.
I should probably sit down and calculate my spend because my guesstimates aren't known for their accuracy, but I'd say about $12,000. It's a lot, I know. But it's also my hobby, brings me joy, and unlike my prior habits, is entirely funded by money I already have, not credit cards and BNPL.
My most expensive clothing in the past year was: Probably a Kowtow dress – specifically the striped Martha dress which sold out in record time. It looks amazing! I think it was $379. Back in 2022 I did the biggest splurge of my life and bought a full length, hot pink wool coat from Cue. I consider it an investment I will wear every winter for many years to come, and it gets so many compliments. It was just over $900 but I will never admit that to my husband!
My last pair of shoes cost: $279 (including shipping from Germany) for a pair of Feelgrounds (barefoot sneakers). They are the most comfortable thing I have ever worn, and the rest of my shoes have barely got any wear since they arrived. They are white tennis style shoes with a gum sole. Most of my shoes are between $250 and $400, and are mainly sneakers and Dr Martens. I only buy high quality leather shoes because comfort is key, and non-leather shoes lead to smelly, sweaty feet.
My grooming/beauty expenditure in a year is about: Two hairdressing trips per year, about $300 each for cut and colour. About $200 in haircare products (mostly Olaplex products, colour booster and dry shampoo!). Make-up about $100 per year – it used to be way higher, but post-pandemic I only wear mascara (Ilia Limitless), brow wax (Anastasia Beverly Hills), a bit of bronzer and blush and lipstick (MAC Lady Danger or Candy Yum Yum).
Skin care is where my beauty spend is focused these days – I use a CeraVe cleanser and then splurge on Emma Lewisham products: Skin Reset Serum, Supernatural Face Creme and Supernatural Face Oil. I also use Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant a couple of times per week. I'd estimate about $1400 on skin care, so that's looking about $2000 all up. Oh wait…. three-weekly manicures too, so that adds another $1500.
My exercise expenditure in a year is about: About $1000 per year for my gym membership. I haven't had to replace any gear this year as i'm not exercising as much because of my injury.
My last Friday night cost: Absolutely nothing. I stayed in and watched Netflix.
Most regrettable purchase in the last 12 months was: A bicycle. It was supposed to save on petrol money, but TBH riding on the road scares the shit out of me.
Most indulgent purchase (that I don't regret) in the last 12 months was: My outdoor egg chair which I bought for the sole purpose of sitting and reading on my deck. I've wanted one for almost five years, and I'm so happy with it.
One area where I'm a bit of a tightwad is: Paying full price on items that are regularly on special.
Five words to describe my financial personality would be: I like nice things!
I grew up in a house where money was: SPENT! My parents, mostly Mum, were big spenders and there was little in the way of savings. We had a pretty comfortable upbringing, and had everything we needed and most of the things we wanted, but I look at my parents now, getting close to retirement age, and wish they'd prepared themselves more for that.
The last time my Eftpos card was declined was: Two days ago at the petrol station. I had the money but not in the right account. Whoops!
In five years, in financial terms, I see myself: Regularly saving and investing. Hopefully being in a position to sell our current home and buy in our dream beach suburb.
I would love to have more money for: Honestly, buying loads of beautiful fresh flowers to keep around the house. I normally allow a spend on flowers of no more than $50 per month, but i'd love to be the type of rich that has regular, abundant florist deliveries (especially in peony season!). Also, my dream is to open a housing facility for street people with animals in Wellington. I want them to have a safe, warm space and in this housing market low income people with animals have a near impossible time finding housing. It would be called 'Harry and Misty House' after my friend Harry who lives on the street with his beautiful dog Misty.
Describe your financial low: I had gastric bypass surgery in 2019. I didn't realise prior but I was addicted to food and after the surgery I couldn't consume food in the same way, so my addiction transferred to shopping. I amassed a lot of credit card debt throughout 2020 and 2021. I literally had a room in my house full of boxes of things i'd brought online. It was bad. Thank god I had a mortgage with equity so was able to consolidate it at a much lower interest rate and pay it off. Since then I've done a lot of financial education as well as therapy and while I still spend a lot, it's within my means, while still saving and investing.
I give money away to: When I was working I used Payroll Giving to donate $50 per fortnight towards various charities – KidsCan, Women's Refuge and HUHA. I'll restart these when I start working again.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
Teenagers who gain work experience at school more likely to be employed by age 20
Gateway supported short-term, work-based placements while Trades Academies provided learning in trades-related. (File photo) Photo: Supplied/ UCOL Teenagers who gain trade and workplace experience at school are more likely to get a qualification and complete apprenticeships, a report finds. A Ministry of Education report said students who participated in the Gateway and Trades Academy programmes were also more likely to be in substantial employment by the age of 20 than other students with similar characteristics. The report considered the cohorts that participated in the programmes in 2014 and in 2018 and compared their education and employment outcomes with similar students who did not participate. It said Gateway was set up in 2001 and supported short-term, work-based placements while Trades Academies had provided learning in trades-related fields since 2010. "Both programmes increased the likelihood of students staying in education at age 17 and achieving a Level 2 or higher qualification by age 18. "These effects were consistent across genders and ethnic groups," the report said. "Men in both programmes were more likely to enrol in and complete apprenticeships, though rates remained lower for Māori and Pacific men. Women's apprenticeship participation remained low. "Both programmes reduced the likelihood of being in limited employment and increased students being in substantial employment, particularly for men. "Gateway had a stronger effect than Trades Academies in reducing limited employment for women, especially Māori and Pacific women." The report said 87-90 percent of Gateway and Trades Academy students had a level two qualification by the age of 18, compared with 78-79 percent for similar students who had done neither programme. It said 10-12 percent had completed an apprenticeship by age 24, compared with six percent for similar students. About a quarter of the group of similar students were in limited employment when they were 18, compared to 16-19 percent for the cohorts that had participated in the programmes. By age 20, 46-53 percent of the Trades Academy and Gateway cohorts were in substantial employment, compared with 35-38 percent for the group that had done neither programme. The report said the programmes appeared to have "a protective role for educational participation and achievement during the pandemic". Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
The Spinoff
a day ago
- The Spinoff
The Weekend: The best food I ate in Singapore was toast
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. It's almost too predictable that I would travel to Singapore for the first time, spend a week eating incredible Malaysian, Chinese and Indian cuisine and only want to write about the buttered toast. But if nothing else, my surprisingly extensive food writing portfolio has revealed my palate to be that of a healthy, developing three-year-old. So let me talk about this toast. I never thought I'd pay for toast (bread, of course, but not toast) until I kept reading recommendations for Ya Kun Kaya Toast, the Singapore breakfast chain that began as a hawker cart 80 years ago. Supposedly this place could make toast better than anywhere else in Singapore, maybe even the world. I went in with low expectations because how much better can a piece of plain buttered toast be compared to the one you make at home? I may have a basic palate but I avoid places that offer things I think I'd enjoy more at home – I love that cereal cafes exist, I'll never eat at one. Well colour me humbled because the Ya Kun Kaya Toast was by far the best buttered toast I've ever had, and for all the wrong reasons. Have you ever tried to describe why toast is delicious? It's quite hard, but here's my attempt to explain why this particular toast was so good. The bread was thin. A piece of thin toast is really underrated. It wasn't hot. Sounds bad but this toast was just warm, and somehow stayed just warm, which meant… The butter had texture. Buttering hot toast means the butter disappears and you're left experiencing just one texture (the slightly soggy, crunchy bread). If you butter like an aunty, you'll get the soggy bread and some extra butter on top. But because the toast wasn't too hot, the butter sat inside like a piece of cheese, resulting in the soft butter texture alongside the dry crunch of the toast. Delightful. The kaya. Kaya is a coconut jam, sweet and subtle. Ya Kun includes it in the toast but very, very sparingly. I'd say the kaya-butter ratio was 1:4. Rather than tasting like coconut, the buttered toast instead tasted just a little bit sweeter, like it had a sprinkle of sugar added (I think they do add an extra sprinkle actually). The portion was small. I could eat a truly shocking amount of white toast with butter and yet the single serving (four pieces of bread with crusts cut off) felt just right. The classic 'kit' came with veeery soft boiled eggs – barely seasoned, just my style – which worked surprisingly well as a dip, and a cup of tea or coffee (I got tea). A perfect light breakfast. I also got some buttered crackers, another island aunty staple, but they weren't needed. I went back two more times at different times of the day, and the toast remained the best I've eaten. I am bringing a jar of Ya Kun Kaya back with me but I suspect it won't be near as nice when I'm in my own kitchen. I love it when people take something that everyone can, and does, do, and finds a way to make it perfect. Ya Kun Kaya makes the perfect toast. The stories Spinoff readers spent the most time with this week Feedback of the week 'Hatch, Match and Despatch is right up there as a memorable institutional name; in my book it ranks alongside a pre-earthquakes Chch women's clothing shop called Get Frocked.' 'Ursula Le Guin: 'The Earth is beautiful, and bright, and kindly, but that is not all. The Earth is also terrible, and dark, and cruel. The rabbit shrieks dying in the green meadows. The mountains clench their great hands full of hidden fire. There are sharks in the sea, and there is cruelty in men's eyes … They exist. But they are not your Masters. They never were.''
Scoop
2 days ago
- Scoop
Kelly Tarlton's Final Treasure Hunt
"It'll be there. Absolutely" insisted veteran treasure hunter John Dearling. "You can't get it out of the reef without wrecking it … It's basically welded into that", agreed his fellow treasure hunter, Peter Pettigrew. But as Hamish Williams was standing in front of a 4.5-meter-tall iron anchor, listening to the thumping of a concert speaker, he was having his doubts. For the past year, Hamish and an intrepid group of allies had been trying to complete an unfinished adventure: Relocating the third anchor of the Saint Jean Baptiste, the oldest European artifact left in New Zealand. The Anchor had last been seen at the bottom of Doubtless Bay in 1982 by underwater treasure hunter (and aquarium founder) Kelly Tarlton. But while everyone insisted the Anchor must still be beneath the sea, nobody had seen it in 43 years. Now, Hamish was seeing an object which exactly matched the description of that historical relic. Far from the bottom of the ocean, it was standing high and dry amid gyrating party-goers at a music festival halfway between Warkworth and Mangawhai. Efforts to finish an adventure 250 years in the making had taken yet another bizarre twist. The voyage of the Saint Jean Baptiste The story of the Saint Jean Baptiste is as tragic as it is dramatic. The name of the ship's captain, Jean-François Marie De Surville, draws a bitter chuckle from Tiger Tukariri. His Ngāti Kahu ancestors were among those who first greeted the Frenchman on his arrival over 250 years ago. "That punk" Tiger says of De Surville. "That punk who stole our tupuna." Captain De Surville had landed in Doubtless Bay out of desperation. He'd never intended to sail for these shores, but with his crew dropping dead of scurvy, De Surville was forced to make for New Zealand where his men were nursed back to health by Tangata Whenua, including a local chief named Ranginui. "He took them in, and brought them back to good health," Tiger says. First contact with Ngāti Kahu was peaceful. The sailors were welcomed ashore with the first documented example of a Pōwhiri, and given permission to restock on supplies of water and firewood. But on 27 December 1769, it all went wrong. A huge storm nearly wrecked the Saint Jean Baptiste against the rugged cliffs of the Karikari Peninsula. As the ship's bosun, Guilliam Labe recorded the near miss in his journal: "The sea was breaking over us and driving us onto the coast. To make matters worse, the vessels stayed for quite a long time without answering to her rudder, and we stared death in the face, seeing rocks along the length of the ship fit to make your hair stand on end." Against the odds, the ship was saved, but in the process, three of its enormous iron anchors - each measuring more than 4 meters tall and weighing a tonne and a half - were lost. In the aftermath of the storm, the peaceful relationship between Ngāti Kahu and the French sailors was fractured. One of the ship's small boats had broken loose and washed ashore. It was claimed by members of the Iwi - who understood it to be a gift from Tangaroa. The French interpreted this as theft, and retaliated by burning huts and fishing nets. They then seized two carved waka, and kidnapped a local rangatira. This chief, named Ranginui, had given shelter and food to French sailors stranded on shore by the storm just a day earlier. The Saint Jean Baptiste sailed away, but neither Ranginui nor De Surville would survive the voyage to South America. Ranginui died suffering from scurvy and lack of water. De Surville drowned after the ship's small boat capsized in heavy surf off the coast of Peru. For centuries, the anchors sat undisturbed at the bottom of Doubtless Bay. Forgotten, silent relics of one of the earliest encounters between Europe and Aotearoa. That was, until a man called Kelly Tarlton came along. The treasure hunter In the 1970s, Kelly Tarlton was world-famous in New Zealand as an underwater treasure hunter. Kelly exhaustively researched over a thousand shipwrecks around the coast of Aotearoa, and explored hundreds of them. Together with his wife Rosemary, he founded the Kelly Tarlton Museum of Shipwrecks - housed on a converted sugar freighter named the Tui, which was parked near the Treaty grounds at Waitangi. Over time, the museum was filled with treasures Kelly discovered - including the gold of the Elingamite, wrecked near the Three Kings Islands in 1902, and the Rothschild jewels from the Tasmania, which went down in 1897 off Māhia Peninsula. Sadly, after Kelly's death, all this treasure was stolen, and the Tui itself was destroyed by fire in 2025. But through the 1970s, the Shipwreck Museum generated enough cash for Kelly to fund his undersea adventures. To supplement that income, Kelly eventually decided to diversify his enterprise by building the famous aquarium in Auckland, which still bears his name. Newspapers and magazines were full of accounts of Kelly's daring expeditions - like his gruelling voyage to to the subantarctic Auckland Islands in a fruitless search for the gold of the General Grant, and his efforts at locating the notorious Lutine, which had claimed the lives of many divers in the years since it sank off the coast of the Netherlands in 1799. Then, of course, there was Kelly's discovery of the first anchor of the Saint Jean Baptiste in 1974. Anyone who has visited Te Papa museum in Wellington has undoubtedly seen this anchor. It's now mounted in the foyer, where it looms over visitors, - creased and crevassed like old dry wood thanks to two centuries of underwater corrosion. The second anchor was discovered by Northland diver Mike Bearsley, and donated to Te Ahu Museum in Kaitaia. Kelly Tarlton located the third anchor, and had plans to recover it. But tragically, in 1985, he died in his sleep, having just shaken the hand of the 100-thousandth customer at his then brand-new aquarium the day prior. Kelly's death at just 47 years old was a tragedy, most especially for his wife Rosemary and teenage daughters Nicole and Fiona, but also for the crew of treasure hunters he'd forged around him. People like Dave Moran, had become deeply attached to Kelly both through his treasure hunts, and his efforts to build the aquarium. "Kelly had it all worked out," Dave remembers. "We were going to just go wreck hunting for the rest of our lives. And then the guy that put the magic together and told the team together was gone, and no one's really replaced him." An unfinished adventure Broadcaster Hamish Williams first heard this story from Kelly's youngest daughter, Fiona Tarlton, sitting on the back of his yacht as they sailed past the Poor Knights Islands. Fiona had agreed to crew for Hamish for a trip up north, but before they departed, Hamish was surprised to be passed a bouquet of flowers by Fiona's mother, Rosemary Tarlton. Rosemary explained the flowers were to be thrown overboard at the Poor Knights Islands, where Kelly's ashes were scattered. A few days later, as they tossed the flowers into the water, Hamish was entertained and impressed by Fiona's stories of her adventurous father. But he was equally enthralled by the idea of an incomplete adventure. An anchor left sitting at the bottom of the ocean - unseen in 40 years. Hamish pitched the idea of completing the hunt to rediscover the third anchor, and secured RNZ's support to make a podcast about the endeavour. But with no experience as a treasure hunter, he knew he'd need some help. Hamish enlisted the advice and support of Kelly's old treasure hunting companions - a fascinating and accomplished set of characters, many of whom have gone on to successful careers in the maritime world. Peter Pettigrew - Kelly's brother-in-law, who had been with him when he found the third anchor, insisted the key is a sextant, the tool De Surville himself had used to chart his position in Doubtless Bay back in 1769. Peter insisted the reason nobody has found the anchor since Kelly is because they don't use the device. "They don't take a sextant and they don't take, you know, the sextant readings from the journal and do what Kelly did, and you plot exactly where he says he was. And if you do that, that's where the anchor is." As Peter explained, Kelly had used the sextant to reverse engineer De Surville's old maps, adjusted them for the movement of the magnetic pole over the past two centuries, then searched the area using a device known as a magnetometer - which can detect iron deep beneath the water. Diving down on a signal from the magnetometer, Peter says they found the anchor almost immediately. "Nearly speared me up the bum," Peter laughed. Kelly had carefully noted the location of the anchor, but over the past 4 decades, the coordinates had seemingly been lost, and nobody had seen the anchor since. Anchors and... anchor-shaped rocks In the process of working on his podcast, Hamish found an unexpected ally via his researcher and producer, Ellie Callahan. Ellie's partner, Brendan Wade, a marine engineer, became enthralled by the idea of finding the anchor. Brendan on his own initiative and cost installed an elaborate side scanning sonar-array on his boat, and on the very first day on the water in Doubtless Bay, they had found something. He pointed at an image from his sonar array. "There's this massive black shadow in the shape of the [anchor's] fluke," Brendan explained. "I'm not saying that that is an anchor. But what I'm saying is that if it isn't an anchor, I haven't got a … Scooby Doo of a clue of what it is." Brendan sent his ROV down to investigate - along with a scuba diver friend named Kelly Withers - ironically, a former employee of Kelly Tarlton's aquarium. After days of diving on the spot identified by his sonar scan, Brendan thinks they have an answer. It's not the one they were hoping for. "It might not be an anchor," he admits. "If it looks like an anchor and it feels like an anchor, it doesn't always necessarily mean that it's an anchor. And in this case, we're pretty confident that it's just a rock that's shaped like an anchor." Discouraged, the team returned home. But, while scrolling through instagram, Kelly Withers saw something which made him jolt in his seat: An advertisement for a nautical-themed music festival called "Shipwrecked". Centre-stage was an enormous iron anchor - just like the one the team were looking for. Getting shipwrecked Hamish rapidly organised a ticket to attend the Shipwrecked festival and see the anchor in person. He drew some strange looks from other festival-goers as he walked up to the anchor in the middle of the dance floor and whipped out a tape measure. To Hamish's astonishment, the dimensions exactly matched what Kelly had recorded for the third anchor. But the early excitement was quenched by conversations with museum curators and metal experts. It turned out the measurements alone weren't enough to determine the identity of the anchor, nor would a chemical analysis of the metal it was made from. Basically, all anchors of the Saint Jean Baptiste's vintage were of a similar size and composition. The anchor's owner, Eric Morrow, explained that he had purchased the anchor in the 1990s and had no idea where it came from originally "I found in a scrapyard" Morrow explains. "It was Pacific Metals in those days, and they didn't know what to do with it. They were going to melt down, though. And I just happened to be there that day. So I offered them double scrap price for it." Morrow had heard many theories about his anchor over the years, including that it was the third anchor of the Saint Jean Baptiste. It seemed a strong possibility, especially with multiple searches of Doubtless Bay coming up empty. Hamish brought the Tarlton family to take a look at Morrow's anchor, as well as two of Kelly's former treasure- hunting companions: Dave Moran and Keith Gordon, head of the New Zealand Underwater Heritage Group. Dave walked up to inspect the anchor more closely. Damage to one of its flukes had caught his eye. "This here is really rough. I mean, one thing of that Kelly things said was that it had a fluke sticking into the reef." Kelly Tarlton's old photos of the anchor show it with one fluke deeply embedded in a rocky reef. The marks Dave Moran is pointing to might be a sign of that. Dave also notes the anchor has a significant bend in it. "I've never seen one of those anchors bent like that," he says. "That would have taken tonnes, you know, to bend it." David Moran theorises the bend might have been caused either by the enormous mass of the Saint Jean Baptiste pulling on the anchor's cable - or maybe been damaged when it was recovered from the ocean floor. But Keith Gordon was more skeptical. Together he and Dave decided it was worth one more trip to Doubtless Bay - just to eliminate any possibility the anchor might still be down there. "We want to go up and have another crack at it," Dave said. The hunt continues Hamish, Fiona, Brendan, Dave and Keith - as well as local Doubtless Bay diver Whetu Rutene - made their way out to the coordinates they'd determined most likely for the anchor. This time they had a new weapon: Keith's magnetometer - a more modern version of the tool Kelly Tarlton had used to find the anchor four decades earlier. Hamish was 90 percent convinced at this stage that the anchor at the Shipwrecked festival was, in fact, the third anchor. But he was happy to spend a day out on the water with Kelly's friends and family. However, it turned out this treasure hunt had a final twist. A loud beep came from the magnetometer, and a spike flicked across the screen. "Oooo we've already got a big hit!" exclaimed Keith Gordon. Scanning the same spot repeatedly, the magnetometer continued to detect a large anomaly on the sea floor - exactly what you'd expect for a 4.5 meter long anchor. Dave Moran, 82, didn't need any more excuses. Flipping backwards into water, his air regulator gripped between his teeth, he descended 30 meters to the bottom. After a few tense minutes, the octogenarian scuba diver resurfaced. "I didn't see anything" he yelled across to a disappointed crew. The next day, Dave and Whetu made two more dives on the same spot. Both turn up nothing. "It won't give up it's soul easy," Dave remarked to Whetu. But the treasure hunters aren't discouraged. They're already planning their next expedition with more advanced diving gear, hoping to catch a glimpse of the anchor they are convinced remains at the bottom of Doubtless Bay. "It's been a big adventure" grins Keith Gordon, "and it keeps us old people young". So how does this adventure end? Is this magnetometer signal truly the third De Surville anchor? If so, where did the anchor at the Shipwrecked festival come from? For now, these questions remain unanswered, and the hunt continues… To hear the full dramatic story of Kelly Tarlton's final treasure hunt, be sure to follow and listen on your favourite podcasting app.
