Life is back to normal for three-year-old Axle, the child who disappeared for almost 24 hours in Tolaga Bay earlier this week - a missing persons case with a happy ending that gripped the nation.
Axle, who vanished at around 1pm on Tuesday, was found safe and well shortly before 11am on Wednesday in the dense bush 4km from his rural Mangatuna home.
On Thursday, Axle was back in his blue gumboots, playing in the puddles with all his siblings - as if nothing had changed.
But for Mum, Haley, life has changed. She told Newshub she won't be taking her eyes off her brave little explorer after the trauma of Tuesday night.
"Words can't describe to be honest. It doesn't seem so real. Like he's back, just when you think the worst has happened - now he's back like a happy little boy," Haley told Newshub on Thursday.
After a night in the hospital, Axle is well rested and back at home where he belongs, a happy ending to what a family friend called his "big adventure".
At 1pm on Tuesday, Haley noticed her son had disappeared from the yard, where he had been playing with the neighbour's dog. He then wandered off, with his family reporting his disappearance to the police at around 3pm.
"I was lost," Axle told Newshub.
It sparked a major search-and-rescue operation, with hundreds of volunteers searching Tolaga Bay farms, forests and rivers well into the night.
"All the mountains around us, all the bushes were lit up with people walking around," Haley said.
Axle told his dad he spent the night sleeping with the rabbits and hiding from the pigs.
He was found 4 kilometres away from his Paroa Road home, in the bush along a road used by logging trucks.
He was hungry and desperate to see his mum.
Gisborne nurse Alana Wells was shocked when she found the three-year-old was completely unharmed from his night in the cold.
"He was really proud he slept outside," Wells told Newshub.
"I checked his pulse, all good. He had a snotty nose, a dirty diaper - but other than that he was fine. I couldn't believe it."
After his check-up, Wells returned him to mum - the perfect ending for her worst nightmare.
"It's like seeing again for the first time. Losing my child, thinking the worst, it's the worst feeling. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.
"He's three years old. How did he walk 4 kilometres - I still don't understand."
While there are still questions, the family are so grateful to have Axle home.
"I can't thank [the volunteers] enough for everything everyone did and all the messages I received," Haley said.
And Axle has only one message to the hundreds who helped find him: "Thank you."
