Julie Denham thought she'd lost her last remaining family heirlooms for good until an out-of-the-blue phone call.

NZTA workers had discovered her Victorian era rose gold brooch and another brooch wedged in the rocks near the Northern Gateway motorway tunnel north of Auckland.

The maintenance crew cleaning up rubbish on the rocky slopes of State Highway 1 just south of the tunnel had stumbled upon a tattered courier bag.

Delwyn Dickey The jewellery was found near State Highway 1, south of the Johnstone Hill Tunnels, north Auckland.

Wedged in rocks the courier bag still had legible addresses and detective work ensued reuniting the jewels with Denham.

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"Out of the blue I got a phone call from the police to say [NZTA] had found my brooch and they wanted to get in touch to return it to me."

A year earlier during a 34 kilometre Snells Beach to Orewa house move, Denham recalled stopping just short of the tunnel to secure a flapping tarpaulin, thinking nothing of it at the time.

​Once settled in to her new home Denham didn't realise somehow the featherweight courier bag had wafted out of the trailer.

"In the chaos of moving I didn't realise it was even missing for a few months and after searching for the box I was pretty sure I wasn't going to see it again."

"[When I got the phone call] I just about fell off the end of the phone, and I ran around saying to my family, you'll never guess where the darn brooch is, it's been out on the road all this time."

The police where enlisted by NZTA to help track down rightful owner Julie.

Following the shock phone call, Denham and her mother Heather were ready and waiting with wine and homemade marmalade for two of the NZTA road crew who dropped back the long-lost brooches at their doorstep.

"When the two road workers walked up the street it was quite a sight, these two big guys with their hi-vis vests carrying my little parcel and I thought, oh my gosh it's coming home, I'm just so grateful they made such an effort to return it to me."

In 2009, Denham, then living in Tauranga, "lost everything" in a house fire - grandmother Mary Denham's estimated 116-year-old brooch and her 21st birthday brooch from her own mother were the only heirlooms that survived, she said.

A grateful Denham promises to "try and stop dropping my junk along the road when I move from now on."