Family of Axle, 3yo boy who went missing overnight, surprised with tickets to Guns N' Roses

The family of three-year-old Axle, who made headlines when he went missing from his Tolaga Bay home for a whopping 21 hours, has been gifted tickets to Guns N' Roses - the band responsible for the toddler's namesake. 

Axle's father Glen spoke to The Rock radio station on Friday morning where he detailed how "horrible and hopeless" the night of his child's disappearance was. 

"I was saying to people after that night and how cold it was, I was not thinking the best, to be honest," Glen said. 

"[It was] the most horrible, longest period in my life. It's a very hard thing to do to be told to warm yourself up and keep yourself comfortable when you know your son's out there freezing. 

"The whole night, every time I got cold and I went to put a blanket on to warm myself up I got really angry with myself because it's like, 'how dare you go to warm yourself up knowing your son is out there?'" 

Against the odds, Axle was returned to his family safe and sound - with only a few scratches on him and a miraculous story to tell. 

The three-year-old, who was wearing only a t-shirt, gumboots and a nappy, told his parents he fell down cliff at one point, hid from wild pigs and climbed up a tree to sleep with some bunnies. 

"You must be the most relieved parent in all of New Zealand along with your partner," Rock host Andrew Mulligan told Glen. 

"[Going from] thinking 'I'm going to be going out and collecting my son's body', to him being safe and coming home, it was pretty good mate!" Glen said. 

The Rock ended the interview by surprising Glen and his family with tickets, flights and accommodation to see Guns N' Roses in Wellington later this year after Glen revealed that Axle had been named after the band's famous frontman, Axl Rose.