Max El-Tahche, 15, is from St Helens, Tasmania.
Photo: Facebook/Royal New Zealand Navy
It all happened on the last weekend of the holidays.
Max El-Tahche and his family were at the beach enjoying the sunshine in Tasmania, Australia, when he stumbled upon a lost treasure… a New Zealand Navy ship’s rugby ball.
“We’d just gone to the beach as a family to relax, and we had just found the ball sitting at the edge of the water,” the 15-year-old said, who found the ball washed-up on Blanche Beach.
“When we found it, saw that there was words on it and but it wasn’t a name. So my dad had searched up the name and found out that it was a Navy ship.”
The ball was marked with HMNZS Aotearoa, the Royal New Zealand Navy’s polar-class sustainment vessel.
HMNZS Aotearoa had recently passed Tasmania after it took a fuel stop at Geelong, the Royal New Zealand Navy said in a post on Facebook.
The post said the vessel was on a re-supply mission to Antarctica.
The HMNZS Aotearoa rugby ball was found washed-up on Blanche Beach in Tasmania.
Photo: Facebook/Royal New Zealand Navy
The ship’s information officer Sub Lieutenant Ben Redmond confirmed a sailor lost the rugby ball overboard after an “over-exuberant and off-target kick from a sailor on the flight deck”.
“It’s quite common unfortunately with losing some balls over the side. It’s usually a case of getting another ball out of the locker and getting on with it, but sometimes it can cut the games short.”
However for El-Tahche, it was a one-of-a-kind situation.
“It’s weird, but it’s amazing to, I guess, finding the ball that belongs to, that has been washed up and belongs to like a Navy ship.”
Max El-Tahche’s father Bashir El-Tahche said it was a good way to end the holidays.
“[It’s] something that I guess Max will never forget,” he said.
The El-Tahche family are in touch with the Navy to organise a special trade – the rugby ball’s return for some ship merchandise.
The rugby ball was kicked off the flight deck of HMNZS Aotearoa while on a resupply mission to Antarctica.
Photo: Facebook/Royal New Zealand Navy
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