
A North Island woman ended her holiday on a high after winning $333,333 in Lotto First Division.
The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, was spending the weekend in Whangamatā with family when she decided to buy a Powerball ticket before heading home on Saturday.
“We had breakfast in town and wandered to the shop afterwards,” she explained. “My brother bought a ticket first, and then I followed.”
Little did the siblings know this order of events would prove crucial later.
“I was busy settling back in and didn’t check my ticket until Sunday night,” she said.
“When I scanned my ticket on the app, it said I’d won a major prize, which I figured was something like $500. That would be pretty major.”
To be sure, she checked the draw numbers against her ticket and found a line with all her numbers.
“Oh my gosh,” she thought, before calling her brother who told her one of the winning tickets $333,333 tickets was sold in Whangamatā.
She recalled screaming: “That’s my ticket.”
“[Her brother] couldn’t believe it and joked that it should have been him.”
The woman was “buzzing” and celebrated with a glass of bubbles before heading to bed, though she “didn’t get much sleep”.
The next day, she took her ticket in store to confirm her good news.
“I wanted to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.”
With her win confirmed – and her brother licking his wounds that he wasn’t the lucky winner – the woman is excited about her future.
“I plan to travel overseas and invest some of the money in a retirement fund. I think it’s important to think ahead,” she said.
The winning Lotto First Division ticket was sold at Whanga Books in Whangamatā for the draw on Saturday, May 6.
Two other winning Lotto First Division tickets were sold for the draw at Four Square Dannevirke in Dannevirke and on MyLotto to a player from Auckland.
- Supplied: Lotto NZ
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