News
The winning streak for Dunedin Lotto players continues, and the region’s latest millionaires have now deposited their Powerball winnings of $13.3 million in the bank.
The Dunedin couple, who wish to remain anonymous, have been playing Lotto since it began.
“Every Sunday morning, I make a cup of coffee and check my ticket,” the winner said.
“I honestly couldn’t believe it when I saw we had six numbers and the Powerball on one line. I checked the ticket about 10 times.
“Then my husband came into the kitchen, so I thought I’d play a bit of a trick on him. Every Sunday morning, he would say to me ‘did we win?’ and I would say something like, ‘Yes! We got a bonus line of Strike’.
“So this time I handed him the ticket with all the numbers circled and said ‘what do you think this means?’. Of course he thought I was having him on,” the winner laughed.
The couple quickly bundled into their car and headed in-store to check their ticket so they could confirm their win.
“The store was so lovely – they were genuinely thrilled for us and gave us a bottle of bubbly to celebrate.”
The winners are still in “disbelief” about their win, although they spent Sunday afternoon eyeing up new cars at the caryard and are looking forward to picking up a brand new car as their first purchase as newly-minted multi-millionaires.
The couple celebrated on Sunday night with a traditional Kiwi feast – fish ‘n’ chips.
“We cracked open the bubbly with our fish ‘n’ chips for dinner on Sunday night – we added oysters to our order to make it a little fancy,” the winner said.
A new car is on the cards, and the winners are also thinking about buying a new house before embarking on a summer holiday around New Zealand.
“It still feels so unreal. I haven’t slept in days!” the winner said.
The winning Powerball ticket was sold at South Dunedin Night N Day and is the third Lotto First Division ticket bought from the store in the past four months.
This is the second major First Division prize to be won in Dunedin this year. In July, a ticket sold at Pak N Save Dunedin won $13.3 million, after the $40 million Must Be Won Powerball prize rolled down to Second Division, where three winners split the jackpot.