Auckland couple struggling to buy a house scoop record $44 million prize on Lotto

Wednesday, 9 November 2016

The winners room at the Lotto NZ offices in New Market Auckland.

An Auckland couple who have won the biggest jackpot in New Zealand lottery history were struggling to get on the property ladder.

The couple from the Hibiscus Coast claimed the prize at Manly Pricecutter - near Dairy Flat - on Thursday, Lotto spokeswoman Kirsten Robinson said.

The $44 million Lotto jackpot will be drawn at 8.20pm on Wednesday.

They were on their way home after visiting the winners' room, she said.

The winner said he was at work and was on a smoko break when he checked the ticket.

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'I saw that I had three numbers in a row, so I quickly checked that I had the Powerball number and then went back and checked the rest of the numbers.

'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 jumped in his car and headed to a nearby Lotto store in Manly to officially check his ticket, busily trying to phone his wife the whole way there.

'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'.

His wife couldn't believe it was all real and thought something was up when she spotted a couple of missed calls.

'I picked up the phone and said 'babe, are you ok?' He said 'we won'.

'At first I thought he was joking, but he managed to convince me. My head started spinning, my heart was racing and I got the shakes.'

The couple visited Lotto NZ headquarters on Thursday afternoon to claim their prize in person.

'As we sat in the winners' room, he kept turning to me and saying 'Am I in a dream?' and I kept turning to him and saying 'is this real?

'I just wish I could have seen his face when he found out we'd won,' she laughed.

Lotto NZ say the couple, who have young children, regularly play, sometimes with their own numbers and sometimes with a dip ticket

'We've been busting our guts trying to buy our first home,' the winner said.

'We just went to the mortgage broker earlier this week to see what they could do to help. But they just couldn't make anything work for us.

'We were absolutely gutted and I just said 'maybe that ship has sailed'.

'But my wife tried to stay positive and said 'don't worry, something good will happen for us'.

'I don't think either of us thought that the something good would be $44 million.

'We're definitely going to have a couple drinks tonight to celebrate.'

With $44 million arriving in their bank account, they have a lot of decisions ahead.

'We want to be really smart about how we manage this money, so we're going to take our time. We just can't believe how lucky we are,' the winner's wife said.

'All we know at the moment is that we're going to give the kids a really great Christmas this year.'

The couple will continue working and would prefer to remain anonymous.

The numbers were drawn on Wednesday night, and were: 1, 3, 21, 22, 29, 30 and 5 as the bonus ball. The Powerball was 6.

The Powerball jackpot rolled over to the record pot for Wednesday, after the $38m pot was not struck on Saturday.

Lotto NZ general manager communications Emilia Mazur said another 14 players were celebrating after winning $66,667 shares in the first division.

The Strike jackpot was won by one player, who takes home $358,175 after buying a ticket at the Royal Oak Mall, Auckland.

More than 2.3 million tickets were sold in the draw.

'Lotto exists to generate money for Kiwi communities – it's why we're here. Every Lotto ticket bought helps provide essential support to over 3,000 community organisations every year,' she said.

People queued at Lotto ticket outlets around the country for the largest jackpot in New Zealand lottery history.

There are 38,383,800 unique Powerball line combinations.

In July, three players from Hamilton, Te Awamutu and Dunedin shared a Powerball jackpot of $40 million, taking home $13.3 million each.

Five months on, a couple who won $13.3m say it took three pairs of eyes before they believed the money was really theirs.

HISTORY OF THE BIG ONES

• November 2016: Powerball rolls over and jackpots to $44m. A single player from Dairy Flat wins.

• July 2016: Powerball jackpots to $40m

• September 2013: $33m Powerball prize won by a player in West Auckland.

• September 2012: Big Wednesday prize of $27m won by young Tauranga man who bought ticket when getting his hair cut.

• March 2012: A $26m Powerball First Division prize won by buyer from the small town of Te Kauwhata.

• April 2011: Powerball reached its second-ever $30m 'Must Be Won' jackpot. It went on to climb to $35m.

• October 2010: $28.7m Powerball prize won by a player in Papakura in Auckland.

• October 2009: A $22.4m Powerball prize won by buyer from Manukau in Auckland.

• June 2009: Big Wednesday reached $36m. It was won by a family syndicate.

• October 2008: Lotto Powerball reached $30m. Five winners split the prize.

• September 2005: Kathy Laugesen became the first person win $1m on Lotto's Winning Wheel.