Big Charity Auction winners revealed

The Bay of Plenty Times can today reveal who the winners of the big prizes were at Thursday night's Big Charity Auction.
Otumoetai resident Greg Prince won the sought-after diamond ring from Molyneux Jewellers and guessed he spent more than 20 hours cutting out the charity auction dollars published in the Bay of Plenty Times. However, it was the Surtees boat that he had initially been after.
"The boat was what got me excited and starting to collect money for the auction," he says.
"Then I found out about the Lions and that they were collecting money for the boat, so I thought: 'Well I'm out of my league now'."
The Tauranga City Sunrise Lions Club sold a car to buy as many papers as they could to collect 39 million charity dollars.
They won the boat so they could raffle it and donate the money from ticket sales to the Cancer Society's Lions Lodge in Hamilton.
Proceeds from newspapers sold during the promotion will also be donated to the Child Cancer Foundation.
"I spent $2500 on papers. I thought: 'If nothing comes of it, well at least it's going to a damn good cause'," Mr Prince says.
Mr Prince said he and his wife might use the ring as part of a re-engagement or marriage celebration.
Appliance package winner Adrian Fensom said he also had his eye on the boat but was dissuaded from bidding for it after learning of the Lions' plans.
Mr Fensom shifted his eye towards the Smiths City appliance package, which would go into the new house he was buying, he said.
Brookfield resident Thea Straub said four of her friends helped her collect the auction dollars which helped her win the Four Seasons outdoor package.
Ms Straub planned on celebrating with them using the outdoor set once she added it to her back garden.
When people began bidding on the Travelcom family holiday to Fiji, Ivan and Ann-Maree Bevins gave up hope after bidding exceeded the $3.25 million they collected.
But strangers started donating their auction dollars to the family of five.
"They didn't even know us but they wanted us to win the holiday," Ms Bevins says.
"The people next to us had $200,000 and said: 'we are not going to get anything, we would like you to have it'.
"We got the Tauranga Hospital nursing department who came up and gave us $3 million. They said: 'you bake us a cake and it's yours'.
"I guess they knew they couldn't get anything. It was between us and a couple who were also getting money."
Ms Bevins said their car was filled with newspapers as they took it to the recycling depot yesterday.