‘I lost my mum’: 3-year-old boy tells rescuer
As the sun went down on Tuesday, and missing 3-year-old Tolaga Bay boy Axle was yet to be found, those searching for him became increasingly concerned.
‘‘We were losing light. Everything was against us because of the time we were informed,’’ Gisborne police Inspector Sam Aberahama said last night.
But the officers, volunteers and friends and family searching for the boy never lost hope.
The search began again at first light yesterday and at about 10.45am the news everyone had been hoping for came: Axle had been found alive and well.
His first words to Peter Hughes, who found him, were: ‘‘I lost my mum.’’
‘‘He came out of the grass . . . He was crying and kept saying, ‘I lost my mum.’
‘‘I said, ‘Well bro I found your mum, so you come with me, and I’ll take you to your mum’,’’ Hughes said.
He had been scouring the riverbank, before heading up a forestry track, about 3 kilometres from Axle’s home where he had last been seen about 12.30pm on Tuesday, when he heard a child’s voice and then spotted the toddler.
When Hughes reunited Axle with his family ‘‘my heart came to my stomach and tears came to my eyes’’.
‘‘This little man is the real hero,’’ he said.
Aberahama said the Gisborne police station was filled with ‘‘a lot of joy’’ when his staff were told Axle had been found.
About 300 people helped look for Axle and a helicopter and police dog were also used in the search. ‘‘I never thought at any time we’d lost hope. Certainly time was against us, but we always kept open-minded.’’
A nurse checked Axle before he was taken to Gisborne Hospital for another check up and was assessed as ‘‘in good shape’’.
Axle’s father, who did not want to be named saying he was a private man, said his son’s disappearance had been a ‘‘pretty scary’’ experience and at times he had feared the worst.
‘‘I didn’t think it was going to be a good ending . . . He said he was sleeping with the rabbits.’’
Axle’s older brother Harry was among those out looking for the toddler. ‘‘I just couldn’t eat knowing he was out there.’’
A close family friend, Shinae Twist, said Axle’s mother was ecstatic her son had been found.
‘‘It’s been the worst 24 hours of her life. He’d fallen down a bank. He said he was trying to find his mum.’’
Overnight on Tuesday, Tolaga Bay residents left teddy bears and blankets at their front doors, trying to entice Axle out of the dark.
Yesterday, Tolaga Bay’s Lisa Riki said there was an influx of Gisborne volunteers. Many opted to search rather than go to work.