“It’s Us! We’ve Won!”- $4.3 Million For Hibiscus Coast Couple

A young couple from the Hibiscus Coast got the shock of their lives last week when they checked their MyLotto ticket to find they were New Zealand’s newest multi-millionaires.

The couple, who wish to remain anonymous, play occasionally and had forgotten about the draw until Thursday evening as they sat down to relax after a long day at work.

“We finally sat down at the end of the day to watch our programme and I saw an advert for Powerball being $4 million, so I said to my partner ‘Oh it must have been won on Wednesday – I wonder who won it.’ Not in a million years thinking it would be us,” said the man.

“I logged in to MyLotto, but we were still watching our programme, so I wasn’t really paying attention… until it got to five numbers, that’s when I started to feel a bit antsy.”

Before they knew it, every number on one line of their ticket had turned blue and the winning music played.

“I jumped up off the sofa and shouted ‘It’s us! We’ve won!’”

The man’s partner was a bit more reserved.

“I just kept thinking it couldn’t be true, I didn’t want to get my hopes up,” said the woman.

After replaying the virtual draw many times, the man sent a screenshot of their ticket to a family member asking them to confirm if what they were seeing was correct.

“She messaged straight back and said ‘Congratulations, looks like you’ve just won $4.3 million!’ That’s when I started to think it might actually be true,” she said.

They shared the news with their parents who were all excited for the couple.

“They all know what this means for us and our future, so it felt great to share it with them,” said the man.

And later, they got together to celebrate with champagne and takeaways.

“It’s funny, we stopped at the shop to buy some champagne, but we’ve only ever bought a $20 bottle of prosecco, so I was quite overwhelmed trying to decide what to buy,” joked the man.

“He came running back out to the car saying, ‘I don’t know what to buy, what’s the budget?’” the woman laughed.

Days later, the win still felt surreal for the couple.

“On Saturday morning, we still got up, put on our Crocs, grabbed a coffee and took the dog out as normal – it just doesn’t feel real. I don’t think I’ll fully believe it until I see it in the bank,” the man said.

With the win safely claimed, the couple are looking forward to what the future holds.

“This win is life-changing, it means we can pay off the mortgage and finish renovating our home.

“We’re well overdue a new car so we’ll be doing that sooner than we had planned,” he said.

“We also have family overseas, so this means we can visit them a bit more regularly now too.”

Notes:

• The winning $4.3 million Powerball ticket was sold on MyLotto for the draw on Wednesday 11 September.
• The prize is made up of $4 million from Powerball First Division and $333,333 from Lotto First Division.
• This is the sixteenth Powerball winner of 2024 so far.
• The winners would like to remain anonymous and do not want to provide any further comment at this stage.

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