Good Samaritan returns bag of cash she found on side of road

A woman found a bag containing $2800 in cash on Pakowhai Rd in Hastings. Photo / HOS

The power of social media helped reunite a pair of young tourists with a large amount of misplaced cash.

A woman who found a bag containing $2800 in cash on Pakowhai Rd in Hastings on Monday, posted a message on Facebook to try and track down the owners that same afternoon.

"I never thought about keeping it," she told Fairfax.

"When I found the cash I thought, 'it probably belongs to a family who saved up all year'."

After being shared over 7000 times, the message reached the owner of the bag, a pair of young tourists working in the area.

They contacted her and after describing the contents of the bag, she handed it over.

"I just wanted to do something to return the money," she said.

"I didn't know the scope of Facebook and I had no idea how it would spread, I just can't get my head around it."

However, the post had also attracted some negative messages, she said, and she has since deactivated her Facebook page.