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New Plymouth Man Celebrates $24 Million Win

How would you celebrate finding out you were a multi-millionaire? For a New Plymouth man, who scored himself a massive $24 million in Saturday’s live Lotto draw, a spicy takeaway and a couple of beers seemed to hit the spot.

The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, is a regular player who picked up his ticket earlier that week on a trip into town.

“I picked up my usual Triple Dip ticket while I was running some errands in town,” said the man.

He didn’t hear that Powerball had been won, and wasn’t in a rush to check his tickets, only realising on Wednesday morning when he went to grab breakfast.

“I opened the pantry to decide what I wanted to eat and noticed my ticket sat there, so I thought it would be a good time to check it.

“I pulled out my phone and went to the website to check the winning numbers, I was drawn to the bottom of the ticket and once I realised I had three numbers, my eyes were skipping ahead trying to finish checking it quickly,” he laughed.

“I saw I had all the numbers… and then the Powerball, number five jumped out at me.”

Staying calm, the man got in his car and headed to a Lotto store to check his ticket.

“When I pulled up, I saw a sign in the window saying that night’s prize was back to $4 million, that’s when it started to feel real,” he said.

“Fortunately, there was no one in the shop so I handed my ticket over and the lady put it through the machine. Without even saying anything she showed me the prize on the little print out and smiled – I didn’t know what to think!”

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“It’s hard to describe how I was feeling, I think I was so focussed on filling in the paperwork and making sure it was confirmed that my mind couldn’t really process that I had won $24 million – the odds are so low, I kept thinking, how jammy is that!”

Arriving home, the man took some time to sit and think about his win, but hunger got the better of him and he decided to drive back into town for some lunch.

“It was a funny drive, I passed some lovely houses and thought ‘I could buy one of those right now,”

“Same with car showrooms, I’ve never been the kind of person to want extravagant things – it’s not me, but I just kept thinking how nice it would be to drive around in a flashy red sports car,” he laughed.

“Everything was suddenly possible, and my mind was in overdrive.”

Instead of buying a sports car, he settled for a quick lunch before heading home to finish off some work.

Later that evening, the man decided he needed to have a little celebration – after all, it’s not every day you win Powerball!

“I finished work and went to grab a spicy takeaway and a couple of beers. I took them home and celebrated being a millionaire, it felt good to relax for a bit.”

The man is looking forward to his future and is already planning what that might look like.

“First I would like to get away and decompress for a little while, so I think I’m going to book myself a holiday somewhere warm and sandy,” he said.

“In the future I would like to buy some land and a property somewhere in New Zealand, but I definitely think travel will be a big part of the next few years for me.”


Notes for editors:

  • The winning $24 million Powerball First Division ticket was sold at Bell Block Supermarket in New Plymouth for the draw on Saturday 26 November.
  • The $24 million Powerball prize is made up of $23 million from Powerball First Division and $1 million from Lotto First Division.
  • The winner would like to remain anonymous and does not wish to provide any further comment at this stage.
  • This is the seventeenth Powerball First Division winner of 2022.
  • The $24 million prize is the second largest prize won in 2022 and is the twelfth largest Powerball win of all time.


Powerball wins in 2022

 Date Prize Store Location 
29 January $21 million MyLotto Auckland
12 February $8.5 million MyLotto Wellington 
26 March $28.1 million Meg Star Auckland 
9 April $8.5 million MyLotto Auckland 
30 April $13 million MyLotto Auckland 
7 May $5.3 million Countdown Vogeltown New Plymouth
21 May $9 millionFour Square MatangiHamilton
81 June$6.3 millionCountdown HobsonvilleAuckland
922 June$12.25 millionHalfway StoreWhakatāne
1023 July$7.3 millionMyLottoTimaru
$7.3 millionMyLottoAuckland
123 August$6.5 millionPak n Save PetoneLower Hutt
1317 August$8.2 millionNew World KaikōuraKaikōura
1421 September$23.3 millionOrewa Lotto PlusOrewa
1524 September$4.25 millionMyLottoAuckland
1619 October$16 millionMyLottoWellington
1726 November$24 millionBell Block SupermarketNew Plymouth

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