John Verboeket is adamant he will never lose his marble, especially after the 76-year-old has only just managed to find it again after 71 years.
He buried it under a house in Malabar in West Java, Indonesia to hide it from the Japanese when he was 5 years old, as they prepared to invade his little town in 1942.
The former dentist and Mt Difficulty Wines chairman was born and raised in Bandung, Indonesia.
His ancestors moved there from the Netherlands in the early 1800s looking for economic opportunities, and established the tea-growing industry in Indonesia.
When the Japanese entered World War 2 and it looked like they would start bombing his town, his parents decided he and his sister should go to live with his aunt and uncle on the Malabar tea plantation in the mountains, because it would be safer there.
Word came that the Japanese were using big trucks to take people in neighbouring areas to prisoner of war camps, so, before they arrived, many of the residents in Bandung hid their treasures so the Japanese could not take them.
''I thought what a good idea.
''So I hid my very special sharp-shooting marble and some other bits and pieces by putting it in a box and burying it under the house.''
When the Japanese invaded, his parents were interned in a prisoner of war camp and by the end of the war, he had largely forgotten about the marble.
Fortunately, his parents survived the POW camp and after the war, the family was reunited and moved back to the Netherlands before migrating to New Zealand in September 1951.
For many years, Mr Verboeket was encouraged by his daughters to go back to Indonesia to find his prized marble.
''My daughters insisted I take them to Indonesia. This year, the opportunity arose to go there.
''We went to the house and I crawled under it in my good clothes - there was a lot less room under there than when I was a child.
''The locals thought I was a bit crazy.
''I had a dig where I thought it was, but I couldn't find it.
''I'd given up finding it, but my daughter said 'Dad, you've waited 71 years to get here. Let me have a look'.''
Within a few seconds of crawling under the building, she had found it, he said.
''It was very exciting. Turns out, I hadn't lost my marble after all.
''It's my one triumph over the Japanese.
''It was only a marble to them, but to me it was my greatest treasure.''
Mr Verboeket plans to display the marble in a glass case and put it on his mantel in Bannockburn, where he now lives.
''It's a small piece of family history, and telling the story about it brings the child out in people.''
