Then a mysterious bottle caught his eye.

Scott Gutterson was at the right place at the right time when he saw what he thought was a log floating in the water, on a closer look he realised it was a glass bottle with a letter inside.

"I just went: 'Oh my God! this is unbelievable.' We've all heard these stories but you never come across anything like it," Mr Gutterson said.

The diver rang his wife to tell her about the bottle he found covered in mussel shells, unable to contain his excitement about his unexpected find.

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"I told her you're not gonna believe what I found and she said 'is it another turtle, is it a shark?'. I said no it's a letter in a bottle," he said.

Mr Gutterson said his family, including his two teenage children and his wife sat around the bottle and decided to make a guessing game out of it.

"I said it could be from Queensland, my son said it would be so cool if it's from New Zealand and my daughter just said it's probably from Murrays Beach," he said.

When the Gerringong dad realised the letter wouldn't come out of the bottle without being damaged in the process, he decided to break it.

"Inside it was the cutest letter from a girl named Vicky from Canberra," he said.

"She had written it on December 4, 2020 and said: 'I would like to write to you and you write back to me'," he said.

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The letter had finally found a home after 808 days.

"There was a number on it, it was his dad Ted's so I gave him a call and told him I was holding his daughter's note," Mr Gutterson said.

"At first he said what note are you talking about and when I told him he just went - no way!"

Vicky, who is now 13, was elated on discovering her letter had reached someone.

"Coincidentally, Ted's parents also live in Gerringong and we have decided to meet up when he visits them during Easter holidays," he said.

"I've told him I'd like to give a letter back to Vicky."

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