"I jumped off the couch and frantically started looking for the ticket — I didn't even see what the sixth number was, never mind the rest of the draw."
Realising the ticket was in her husband's wallet, the woman picked up the phone to call him.
"To my surprise, as I picked up the phone he was already calling me. As soon as I answered, I blurted out that we had matched five of our lucky numbers in the Lotto draw," she said.
"That's when he told me that, no, actually we had matched all six. Little did I know that he had caught the Lotto draw too."
The pair checked the ticket online together later that night, which confirmed they indeed had the winning numbers.
"We honestly couldn't believe it, we're both in shock," she said.
The woman said she had been playing her own Lotto numbers for the last 10 years and "couldn't be happier" with the win.
"We are hardworking people and this win gives us peace of mind and security that we never thought we'd have."
She had kept the winning ticket "nice and safe" under her pillow until she and her husband went to claim their winnings.
"I think I may have got two hours' sleep that night. I was so excited," she said.
The couple had chosen to keep their winnings a secret for now. "We're just enjoying the moment," the woman said.
The million-dollar win had not yet sunk in.
"Every morning I wake up and think, 'Did that really happen?' It'll probably be surreal for a while yet, we're just blown away," she said.
Te Puke Four Square owner Kim Hothi felt lucky his store had sold the winning ticket.
Hothi said it was the fifth time that his store had sold a lucky ticket.
The Te Puke store sold two big wins with Instant Kiwi and a Bullseye in 2014. Another lucky million-dollar ticket was bought at the store in 2011.
"It gives us goodwill, we are one of the luckiest Lotto stores in town," Hothi said.
