It's bubbly for city's $500k Lotto winners

A couple have claimed a $500k Lotto prize in Napier.

Napier's half-million-dollar Lotto winners have claimed their prize - and a bottle of celebratory bubbly.

"Yes, they popped in this morning," Andrew Spence said yesterday.

Rather than travel to Auckland, the couple said they wanted "to share the good news with us", added Mr Spence.

The half-share of the first division prize was the 12th top-of-the-line prize Andrew Spence Pharmacy had sold.

Mr Spence said the winners were regulars. "So their perseverance paid off."

As well as provide them with the required paperwork to claim their prize, he made sure they took with them the bottle of bubbly he bought "in case they called in".

Lotto spokeswoman Samantha Parker said the winners had asked to remain anonymous and said they had no plans at this early stage as to what they would be doing with their windfall.

"The ticket was a lucky dip and they watched the Lotto draw live, although they didn't check the ticket until about half an hour later."

Mr Spence said with the latest big win and the Powerball jackpot climbing to $9 million, he anticipated a busy Friday and Saturday coming up.

"It was even busier than usual on Monday morning. We're expecting to see a lot of new faces coming in and probably queues out the door."

The winner of the other $500,000 share, who bought a ticket in Wellsford, north of Auckland, had also claimed their winnings.

Saturday's win was the third first-division prize to head Hawke's Bay's way this year.

In May it was shared by a Napier person who bought a ticket at Countdown and a Hastings person who bought a ticket at Raureka Lotto and Superette in Hastings.