A Wellington woman can’t believe her luck after discovering she had won $1 million with Lotto First Division – and it was all thanks to a Bonus Ticket.

The winner, who wishes to remain anonymous, didn’t think much of it when she won a Bonus Ticket last week – never imagining it would see her become a millionaire.

“My partner had reminded me to grab a ticket because Powerball was getting pretty big – and while I didn’t scoop Powerball, I did win a Bonus Ticket which I thought was pretty good. After all, it meant I was in with another chance,” said the woman.

It wasn’t until Thursday evening when the couple were at the supermarket that the woman realised just how lucky her Bonus Ticket had become.

“As we were leaving the supermarket we stopped by the Lotto counter as I had a couple of tickets from a while back that I’d been carrying around in my purse,” said the woman.

“I handed them to the lady at the Lotto counter and while she was checking them, I thought I might as well check my Bonus Ticket at the same time – so flicked open the Lotto NZ app to see if I’d had any luck.

“I was standing at the Lotto counter when I saw I had six numbers circled off on one line of my Bonus Ticket – and then the winning tune played on my phone. I stood there staring at my phone thinking, ‘surely that’s a winner?’” laughed the woman.

Realising something a bit unusual had happened, the woman’s partner came over to see what was going on.

“I looked over and noticed my partner had a huge smile on her face – that’s when she showed me her phone and I saw ‘$1 million winner’ on the screen. We were both in shock and had no idea what to do,” said the woman’s partner.

But it didn’t take long for reality to sink in for the lucky couple.

“The Lotto lady saw we were a bit rattled and was so incredibly helpful – she took one look at the screen on my phone and said, ‘Congratulations! Let’s get you two sorted!’, then helped us get the online prize claim form filled in,” laughed the woman.

The couple then headed home and had a special evening planning what they would like to do with their winnings.

“When I woke up the next morning the first thing my partner said to me was, ‘how does it feel waking up next to a millionaire, babe?’” laughed the man. “I’ll be honest, it was a pretty incredible feeling.”

The couple is looking forward to using their winnings to purchase their first home and set themselves up for the future.

The $1 million winning Lotto First Division ticket was sold on MyLotto for the draw on Wednesday 23 March.

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