Hawke's Bay players may not have walked away with $44 million but two lucky people have won a $66,667 share of Lotto First Division.
The two winning tickets were brought from Z Wairoa and Napier Food Mart. They have joined 12 others from around the country.
More than 2.3 million tickets were entered in to the draw and this was the fifth time that Powerball reached a Must Be Won draw with a jackpot of over $30 million.
People raced to the store yesterday to get their tickets with queues out the door at Andrew Spence Pharmacy in Onekawa and Unichem Stortford Lodge Pharmacy.
Unichem at Stortford Lodge, previously Peter Dunkerley's, has a reputation for being one of the luckiest stores around the country but failed to deliver this time.
The stores Lotto manager, Nanette Woodham, said earlier they had built such a reputation that tourists would even stop by to get their tickets, as they saw the store as the luckiest Lotto Shop.
Central Hawke's Bay also experienced a rush of people and Waipukurau New World lotto operator, Dianne Ransfield, said she never had a line less than five people, which was unusual for Waipukurau.
Emilia Mazur, Lotto New Zealand's general manager corporate communications, said the Powerball jackpot was the largest New Zealand has ever seen.
"With the largest jackpot ever on offer in New Zealand, Kiwis had even more to play for this week, Ms Mazur said.
The winning ticket for the $44 million came from Dairy Flat Food Mart and Liquor, north of Auckland.
The $44 million prize is the largest sum of money won by any person in Lotto history.
The winning Strike jackpot ticket of $358,175 was sold at Royal Oak Mall Lotto also in Auckland.
The last Must Be Won draw of $40 million was back in July this year where it was shared by three Powerball Second Division winners from Hamilton, Te Awamutu and Dunedin.
They each took home a total of $13.3 million each.