New Zealand's luckiest Lotto store strikes again with a lucky customer winning $600,000 with Strike 4 in last Saturday night's Lotto draw.
The woman, who was visiting family in Hawke's Bay, was out doing a spot of Christmas shopping last Saturday when she drove past the lucky Lotto store.
"Everyone knows it's 'the store' to buy Lotto from, so when I happened to drive past, I thought I better stop in and get my ticket. You just never know, I thought I might get lucky."
It wasn't until the woman went to check her Lotto ticket the next day that she found out her impulse purchase had paid off.
"I went down to my local supermarket to buy some groceries, when I saw my ticket sitting in the front console of my car and thought I should check it. I walked straight up to the self-checker and it came up with the message 'DIV 1'.
"I thought what is 'D - I -V - 1'? It didn't even cross my mind that I had won anything - I thought there was something wrong with the machine," laughed the winner.
The woman then handed her ticket over to the Lotto lady to check it through the Lotto terminal.
"When the ticket went through, the Lotto lady's jaw just dropped and she said to me 'you better come with me to the office'.
"I just couldn't believe it when she told me how much I had won, I really thought she was kidding. My daughter was with me at the time - we were both so excited we ended up dancing around the room!" laughed the winner
"I even had to send a picture of the Lotto form to my husband before he'd believe me that we'd won."
With the money safely in the winner's bank account, the family now get to enjoy the Christmas period thinking of ways to spend their newfound fortune.
"The first thing on the cards is to pay off the mortgage. It's so exciting to know that we will now own every inch of our house.
"As for the rest of it, we're just going to put it away for now and take some time to think about it.
"It still feels really unreal, it's going to be a very special Christmas this year," said the winner
The winning ticket was sold at Unichem Stortford Lodge in Hastings.
This win brings the total number of First Division wins sold at this store to 44 making it the 'luckiest' Lotto store in New Zealand.