A New Zealand man has been reunited with a card that he lost more than two decades ago after it was found on the Antarctica seafloor.
David McCaw, a music producer, had lost his security card after someone broke into his car and threw his briefcase into the harbor.
To everyone’s surprise, the same card has been found underneath a sheet of ice in Antarctica, more than 2,300 miles away.
Rod Budd, who works for New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, discovered the card on the seafloor while studying the creatures that inhabited the area. He said he originally thought it was a credit card, due to limited visibility, and had dived down to retrieve the item.
He said it’s not uncommon for objects to fall to the seafloor in the area as many scientists work in the area. It’s also close to Scott’s hut, a historic building that was erected during the 1911 British Antarctic Expedition, which attracts lots of visitors.

Once Budd returned to the surface, he and his team realized the item was a security card that belonged to a David McCaw.
They didn’t have a David in their expedition team so he figured the card might have belonged to another team member that had visited the area during a previous mission. He made a mental note to give the item back to its owner once he returned to New Zealand.

Upon returning, he tried multiple times to find a phone number or email for McCaw, but was unsuccessful.
In the end, it took eight years for him to track him down.
Budd and his team were shocked to learn that McCaw had never visited Antarctica, and that the card had somehow found its way to the seafloor from New Zealand.
McCaw was also shocked that someone had found the card he had lost 21 years ago.

The New Zealand researchers were stunned as to how such a small item could have traveled so far between 2003 and 2016. Physical oceanographer Craig Stevens said in a statement that he does not believe the card got there of its own accord as there are no ocean currents that can bring an item from Wellington to that part of Antarctica within a few years.
He said that even if the card somehow made its way to the water’s surface, and crossed the Antarctica Circumpolar Current, it would take nearly 1,000 years for it to arrive at Cape Evans.
He believes the card may have been attached to something more buoyant, which would make the impressive journey possible.