A kind hiker from Mount Pearl, some help from Facebook and a little luck helped reunite a Montreal couple with a camera they lost while vacationing in Newfoundland.

That's Newfoundland. Everybody knows everybody in some way, shape or form. - Paul Stacey

Paul Stacey was on a three-day hike from Cape St. Francis to Quidi Vidi when he saw a camera hanging from a tree near Logy Bay.

Stacey said it appeared a branch had hooked onto the camera strap and pulled it out of the owner's pocket.

Paul Stacey found a camera hanging from a tree while hiking the East Coast Trail in Logy Bay. (Sherry Vivian/CBC News)

"I looked at it and said, 'It's going to rain tonight, that camera's going to be destroyed,'" Stacey told CBC News. He turned the camera on to see if it was still working, but the menu was in French.

Stacey took the camera home to continue his detective work. In an effort to identify the owner, he looked through the photos on the memory card. He then posted one of the photos to Facebook.

Sharing frenzy

Within 24 hours, the post had been shared more than 2,000 times. People from all across the province were looking for clues to help find the couple in the photo.

The post appeared in Sharlene Butt's Facebook feed on her way back from a camping trip on Sunday. She immediately recognized the couple as Patricia Doiron and Yvon Deschênes — two Montrealers who had just been vacationing in the province.

If you're travelling to Newfoundland, party with Newfoundlanders. - Patricia Doiron

"I shouted in the truck, I said 'Oh my god that's Patricia,'" Butt told CBC News.

Butt and her husband had been camping in Port Rexton, Trinity Bay at a site next to the couple. After bonding over some loud music, the two couples became fast friends. Butt and Doiron added each other on Facebook before parting ways.

Sharlene Butt met Patricia Doiron, the owner of the camera, on a camping trip to Port Rexton. (Sherry Vivian/CBC News)

Doiron arrived home to Montreal on Sunday and saw a Facebook message from Butt alerting her to Stacey's post.

"I kept phoning my husband every five minutes [on Sunday]," Doiron told CBC News. "I kept phoning him and saying, 'You'll never guess!'"

Mind-boggling generosity

Doiron and her husband knew they had lost their camera somewhere on the East Coast Trail between Logy Bay and Quidi Vidi, during their three-week vacation, but didn't know exactly where.

They never thought they would see their photos again.

"We're really glad to get it back because that's what trips are about," Doiron said.

As she was looking through the comments on Stacey's Facebook page, Doiron couldn't believe community commitment to finding them. ​

"It was so random and extraordinary," Doiron said. "I'm just mind-boggled by everyone's generosity. Only in Newfoundland."

Patricia Doiron thanked Paul Stacey for finding her camera during a Skype call from her home in Montreal on Tuesday. (Sherry Vivian/CBC News)

Doiron had the opportunity to thank Stacey for his help during a conversation over Skype on Tuesday. She insisted Stacey and Butt should be the new faces of Newfoundland tourism.

"Come for the views, stay for the people," Doiron said.

Party with Newfoundlanders

Stacey is still humble about the gesture and said it was only a matter of time before someone recognized the couple.

​"That's Newfoundland. Everybody knows everybody in some way, shape or form," he said.

Patricia Doiron says making friends with Newfoundlanders paid off on her vacation to the province. (Patricia Doiron)

But Doiron said she and her husband were lucky to meet the right people.

"If you're travelling to Newfoundland, party with Newfoundlanders," Doiron said.

"You never know what it will lead to."