Mum and dad thrilled to have active Axle back
The day after spending a night alone in the bush ‘‘sleeping with the rabbits’’, Axle Hamblyn is back to his normal happy, active self.
The Tolaga Bay 3-year-old went missing from his family’s rural home, on the East Coast, on Tuesday afternoon, sparking a massive hunt of 100 hectares of farmland and bush, involving police, volunteers, family and friends. He was found on a forestry track 3 kilometres from his house, by a searcher about 10.45am on Wednesday.
His mother, Haley Allatt, said Axle was ‘‘doing amazing’’ yesterday.
He had been checked over at Gisborne Hospital and apart from a couple of scratches and bruises, a sore throat and runny nose, he was found to be well. Allatt said she was surprised he didn’t have hypothermia. The temperature in the area had dipped to 7 degrees Celsius on Tuesday night.
Axle had been playing with a little white dog called Bro on the property before he disappeared.
‘‘My heart just broke in two. He was just gone,’’ Allatt said.
The family searched the farm and then, after they found no sign of him, called the police.
When no-one answered the phone at the local station, Allatt drove down there to see if anyone had found Axle. Discovering that no-one had, the worried mum called 111 and police joined the search.
More than 300 people helped to look for Axle, including his 11-year-old brother Harry, who was too worried to eat until his sibling was home, knowing he was out in the dark alone.
Allatt described Harry as a ‘‘trouper’’, who spent ‘‘ages’’ scouring the rugged landscape for the toddler.
Axle’s first words to his rescuer, Peter Hughes, were ‘‘I lost my mum’’.
Allatt said she had been crying for the entire 22 hours that Axle was missing, but when she heard he had been found alive, her tears of anguish became tears of joy.
After they were reunited, Axle told her he walked with the dog and went looking for her. ‘‘He said he fell down a hill and slept in a tree.’’
When Allatt met Hughes, who had previously been a stranger, she gave him a huge hug: ‘‘He brought my baby home’’. Axle’s siblings, Jordan, 13, Dekota, 12, Harry and 5-year-old Hunter would return to school today. Meanwhile, Axle and
Allatt were heading out to buy a trampoline to keep him occupied.
Both she and Axle’s dad, Glenn, struggled to find the words to express their gratitude to those who searched for Axle.
Glenn said the family had moved from Te Awamutu, Waikato, to Tolaga Bay only weeks earlier . They had been without a home since January and had leapt at an offer to rent a home in the area. Glenn said he was stunned by the local response to his family’s plight.
‘‘This community’s just awesome. We’re not even locals. Just a couple of phone calls, and they were all here. They saved my son’s life. How do I thank people like that. Words aren’t enough.’’