"I decided to quickly check my emails and saw one from MyLotto that said I'd won a major prize. I was stoked, thinking I might've won $20,000 or something.
"Then I saw all the numbers being circled off one line on my ticket ... the next thing I knew it flashed up saying I'd won $4.3 million."
He's now deciding how to spend it. Initially most of it will probably stay in the bank - although there are two things he really wants.
"As luck would have it, I just bought a cheap little runabout car at the weekend, but now I'm thinking I should splash out on something fancy. And I want to buy a nice, big flat-screen TV so I can watch the mighty Black Caps during the World Cup."
The man, who is single, also plans to help others through his good fortune.
He'd like to cut down his work hours so he can do some volunteer work, and some of his winnings "will definitely make their way into the local community".
He's a regular Lotto player and prefers to play online because of the convenience.
"I'm not very superstitious so I just buy a dip rather than picking my own numbers."
The most he had won before was around $100 a couple of years ago. "This is definitely a bit of a jump up from that."
The man's winnings were the equal third largest Lotto prize to be taken out in Wanganui. In 2003 an $8.8 million prize was won, and a $7.8 million prize in 2007. Coincidentally, a $4.3 million prize was taken out in Wanganui almost exactly five years ago to the day.