Farmer laps up his luxury Lotto trip

Central Hawke's Bay farmer Bruce Worsnop netted $200,000 on Lotto's Winning Wheel live draw in Wellington on Saturday night but by Sunday afternoon had "come back down to earth" and was on his property mustering stock.

Mr Worsnop has worked on his farm, BMW Belgium Blues Stud, near Tikokino since 1951 and over the year the opportunities to head to the big city for a special occasion had been few and far between.

That is, until a couple of months ago when he realised his Lotto ticket was eligible for the Winning Wheel draw and started to make inquiries. "I went to Wellington and the procedure was explained to me, they said if I wished to remain anonymous I could take $25,000 and walk away, or I could sign a contract to spin the wheel live on television," Mr Worsnop said.

Not interested in taking the cash, he wanted a chance at spinning the wheel and so agreed to the terms of NZ Lotteries. An exciting few weeks followed when a camera crew came out to film his family working on their farm for a clip which was screened during the live spin on Saturday night.

"We set a date for the trip to Wellington, they offered to fly us down but I wanted to drive to have more independence over our weekend," Mr Worsnop said.

"They booked us in at the Intercontinental Hotel in the centre of Wellington, where we had every luxury afforded to us and treated like lords."

He was particular keen on the bed at the hotel which he said was so big "you needed a compass to navigate your way around it".

Mr Worsnop and his partner Wendy went shopping with a stylist and were allowed to chose their outfits for the television show. They were treated to a limousine ride to Avalon television studios in Lower Hutt to prepare for the live draw where they met NZ Lotteries and TVNZ officials.

"To meet and mix with those people back stage and enjoy their company was a real privilege. We had a couple of dummy runs, spinning the wheel just to get everyone in the swing of things," he said.

Willing the wheel to stop at the $1 million mark had been on Mr Worsnop's mind during the weeks leading up to the trip to the capital.

The needle stopped at the $200,000 mark but was more than enough to put a smile on Mr Worsnop's face. The money would be put back into his farming business, to use towards improving and updating the genetics of his stock, he said.

"It was a thrill and I wouldn't have missed it for quids. It would be very seldom a country boy gets to go and stay in the city."