The Kiwis with the golden tickets: NZ's biggest ever Lotto Powerball wins
Thursday, 10 October 2019
This story was first published in October 2019 and has been republished ahead of this week's $50m draw.
One lucky person could see $50 million added in their bank account this week.
The country's largest ever Lotto Powerball jackpot is up for grabs this Saturday.
The last time the figures climbed this high was in 2016 when $44m was taken home by a couple from the Hibiscus Coast.
When a lucky Auckland father realised he'd won that money, he yelled, leapt into his car and drove to the nearest Lotto store, frantically trying to call his wife on the way.
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That was the moment the couple with young children realised they'd taken out the country's biggest-ever Lotto Powerball jackpot.
In January this year, a South Island ticket holder also found themselves $17.1m richer after buying their lucky yellow piece of paper from a store in Twizel.
In October 2019, a massive $38m was up for grabs and two people split the winnings, with each taking home $19,142,857.
The prize was over $30m was in November 2017, when the jackpot rolled over to $38m. Two players shared the money then too, each taking home $19.1m.
Just two months before that, a single player took home a whopping $30.2m after picking up a ticket in Taupō.
Just imagine what it would feel like to see $42m materialise in your bank account overnight.
What would you do with it? Would you buy a boat, a house, a plane, perhaps a farm, or an extended family holiday? Would you give some of it away to friends, children and charities?
NZ'S BIGGEST WIN
The biggest powerball Lotto win in New Zealand history was $44m.
A couple from the Hibiscus Coast who have young children claimed the prize in 2016. At the time they had been struggling to get on the property ladder.
The man - who to this day is still anonymous - had been on his smoko break at work when he checked his winning ticket.
'As soon as I saw I had all the numbers on one line I just yelled 'holy s…' - my boss thought I'd chopped my arm off with a saw.'
He quickly jumped into his car to drive to the nearest Lotto store in Manly to officially check his ticket, and tried to phone his wife on the way.
'As I was driving to the store, they were talking about the big win on the radio and I started screaming out 'that's me'.
When he finally broke the news to his wife she said: 'My head started spinning, my heart was racing and I got the shakes.'
The couple claimed their prize from Lotto's head office, and said they had felt like they were in a dream.
At the time of their mammoth win, the pair had been 'busting their guts' trying to buy their first home.
Their lucky ticket had been bought from Auckland's Dairy Flat Foodmart in November 2016.
WIFE'S LUCKY NUMBER
In 2013, a man from West Auckland won the second biggest prize in Lotto's powerball history - $33m.
The anonymous man had stowed away his ticket and had almost forgotten about it until he heard on the radio that the prize hadn't been claimed.
In a statement at the time, the man said that: 'When I heard it was still unclaimed, I thought, 'you know, it could be me'.'
'But I still went straight to the gym before checking my tickets. I thought, 'well if I've just won $33 million I might not be able to concentrate on getting my exercise done afterwards', I guess I didn't really think it would be me.'
The lucky winner said he had his wife to thank. 'Four is her lucky number, which is why I chose it as the powerball number on this ticket.'
At the time the man said he had been trying to remain calm but was actually 'stressed on the inside' as he pondered what to do with his win.
Treating friends and family had been at the top of the list, as well as a new car for his wife.
He had bought his lucky ticket from One Step Ahead in Ponsonby.
The couple who sold that winning ticket from their store had a copy of the ticket framed by Lotto.
In 2013, Alison and Gary Ashton told the New Zealand Herald they didn't know who the lucky winner was, but they had hoped it was one of their regular customers who were 'well deserving people'.
Alison Ashton had told Stuff at the time that she'd been 'a little bit shell-shocked' after finding out they'd been the ones to sell the multi-million dollar ticket.
A HUGE RIPPLE EFFECT
Tina from Taupō knows what it's like to hold a lucky golden ticket.
She was one of 10 women in a syndicate who took out the $30m Lotto prize sold in Taupō in 2017.
The women were all dental professionals from around the country.
In 2017, Tina explained to Stuff how she administrates the syndicate: she buys 10 week blocks of tickets that everyone contributes $20 towards. They had previously won $12,000, but Tina said she had always believed they would hit a bigger jackpot one day.
'When we won $12,000 we thought 'that's lovely, now onwards and upwards' … But I don't think we'll top $30 million,' she said at the time.
Tina said she actually had felt quite calm when realised her syndicate had the winning powerball numbers lined up on the page. 'The real excitement for me was sharing the news with the girls.'
Initially the others in the group had thought she was pulling a prank, but after awhile, the news sunk in. Speaking in 2017, she described the group as a 'bunch of really grounded, really lovely people'.
'There's going to be a huge ripple effect because it's not just me, it's ten of us, plus our families. This win will be enjoyed by many, many people,' she had said.
That ticket was sold at Richmond Superette in Taupō.