| Saturday night
of 20th May made New Zealand lottery history
when a single Powerball player won almost $18
million. The winning ticket was sold by a convenience
store in Kaeo, which is a small community in
Whangaroa in the Northland. The store had been
burgled recently and was only licensed to sell
lottery tickets a few months ago.
Previously, the record for New Zealand’s
biggest ever Lotto win stood at $15.3 million
– a figure achieved last September by
a winner in Auckland.
“While the rest of the nation speculated
about who has won the huge windfall, the lucky
winners remained oblivious to their incredible
luck,” said Warren Salisbury, NZ Lotteries
Deputy Chief Executive.
The winner has requested to remain anonymous,
but said in a statement:
“We had not seen the draw, or heard any
of the media coverage. We did not know where
it had been sold.
“Out of the blue we got a call from a
relative who had heard the winning ticket was
sold in Kaeo. We quickly asked him to check
the numbers for us on teletext. Initially he
read a number out incorrectly, so we thought
we’d had a good Second Division Powerball
win.
“But then we got the correct numbers,
and could not believe it when they matched ours.
We had to check the ticket five or six times.
“It really hasn’t sunk in yet,
we are absolutely stunned. We are just ordinary
people but now we get to live an extraordinary
life.”
24th May 2006
Back to news summary
• News archive |
