"I was feeling lucky, so decided to buy a ticket"
The lucky winner, who has decided to remain anonymous, won the seven-figure jackpot on Saturday 6th October after matching the numbers 8, 13, 24, 26, 28 and 39. There were just over 250,000 winners on the night, but the Auckland-based player was the only ticket holder to match all six numbers to win the jackpot.
She said she decided to check her Lotto ticket from a previous draw at the supermarket because there wasn’t a queue, revealing: "I heard the winning music play and was so excited when the Lotto lady told me I'd won NZ$30! I was feeling lucky, so decided to use the winnings to buy a ticket for that night's draw - after all, you just never know!" Although she watched the Lotto draw live that night on television, it wasn’t until the next day she checked her ticket and discovered that she was actually the jackpot winner who had matched all six main numbers.
"As soon as I woke up, my husband told me that New World Birkenhead had sold a $1 million ticket. It turns out he'd had trouble sleeping so had gone on Facebook, where he saw the news on our local community Facebook page. I honestly have no idea how he managed to go back to sleep after reading that, he didn't even check the ticket! I would've jumped straight out of bed to check the ticket if it had been me."
The woman then checked her ticket on the Lotto NZ app, explaining: "When I saw the words 'Major prize' appear on the screen, I could barely believe it. My husband pulled up the winning numbers so we could double check. As soon as I found the first number on my ticket, all the rest jumped out at us, there really was no missing it - we just stood there like stunned mullets!"
Winnings will go towards mortgage and holiday
The couple, who claimed their winnings in-store, celebrated by cracking open a bottle of champagne, and she said: "I couldn't stop smiling all day - we kept on having these little 'wahoo' moments. This win has taken the pressure off and we're excited to see what the future holds." The duo have said they plan to use their winnings to pay off their mortgage and go on holiday.
It is the third successive draw in which the Lotto jackpot has been won, after two ticket holders split NZ$1 million on 29th September, and a single ticket holder claimed NZ$1 million for themselves four days later. The win also follows on from the record-breaking Lotto draw on 19th September, which saw 40 winning tickets split a NZ$1 million jackpot.
