An Auckland couple couldn’t believe their eyes when they discovered their lucky numbers had scooped them a massive
$14.25 million with Powerball First Division.
The winner, who wishes to remain anonymous, picked up her regular Lotto ticket on the Lotto NZ App on Saturday morning.
“I’ve been playing the same numbers for a few years now – they’re a combination of family birthdays, milestones and
special events. I pick up a ticket for most draws, but didn’t actually buy this ticket until Saturday when I saw what
the jackpot was… it was a bit of a whim really,” said the winner.
The winner thought nothing more of her decision until after the draw, when she decided to log into the Lotto NZ App and
check her ticket.
“We had friends over for dinner and I decided to open up the Lotto NZ App and check my ticket while we chatted. My mind
started racing when I saw the numbers all being circled on one line – I wanted to tell my husband, but he was deep in
conversation, so I started tapping the table to try and get his attention.”
“I had no idea what she was doing,” laughed her husband. “Then she turned her phone to me and showed me the ticket and I
just nodded and said, ‘oh cool, a Bonus Ticket’.”
“That’s when I pointed at the number stamped on the top of the ticket, but he still didn’t click – he thought it was
$14,000. Even then, he played it cool as all our friends were around, so I decided to sleep on it and double check again
in the morning,” said the winner.
After a sleepless night, the woman logged back into MyLotto on Sunday morning and checked her ticket again.
“I saw all the numbers circled on one line again and it started to feel real – though I’ve lost track of the number of
times I’ve gone back and looked at the ticket since then,” laughed the winner.
“When my husband woke up, I sat him down and told him he needed to have a look at our Lotto ticket again,” said the
winner.
“I was still stoked to have won $14,000 – so when she told me to double check how many zeros there were, I could hardly
believe it. There it was right in front of me – we’d won $14,250,000… and a Bonus Ticket too!” her husband said.
With the prize now safely in the winners’ bank account, the couple are looking forward to enjoying their winnings.
“We’ll pay off the mortgage and help set our kids up – that’s the most important thing for us. We want to make sure the
whole family is set up for the future."
“You always dream about winning Powerball, but for it to actually happen… it’s blown us both away,” the winner said.
The winning Powerball ticket was sold on MyLotto for the draw on Saturday 17 April.