A stunned Nelson man "was shaking all over" after discovering a winning scratchie had turned him into a millionaire.

The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, picked up a Scratch a Million Instant Kiwi ticket from Nelson's Black Cat Store on Saturday.

"I hopped into my car and began to play it right there in the car park. When I was scratching it, I noticed that the very first number I scratched away had won me a prize. I didn't even finish scratching the rest of the game," he said.

"When I saw I had won the top prize, I started shaking all over. I checked the instructions on the back about four times, and even snapped a photo of the game and sent it to my daughter. I couldn't believe what I was seeing."

The man went straight back into the store where he had just bought the winning ticket and claimed his prize.

"When I returned to my car, my daughter called me. She was ecstatic and said that she had counted the zeros in the picture several times before truly believing I'd won $1 million," said the man.

With the prize now safely in his bank account, the man says he wants to keep things "as normal as possible" but was looking forward to setting himself up for the future.