"When the machine played the winning music and said, 'congrats, major prize' I was a bit surprised," the man said.
"Not knowing how much I had won, I decided to play it cool and keep a low profile, so I went up to the counter, purchased a Lotto ticket for the next draw, and went straight home," he said.
When the man arrived home he told his wife what happened.
Together they pulled up the draw results on MyLotto and went through the winning numbers onscreen.
"Sure enough, I had all the numbers on one row of my ticket," the man said.
"My wife kept saying, 'you're kidding' – we were both in complete disbelief that we were holding a winning Lotto ticket."
After a restless night's sleep, the man stashed his ticket back into his wallet and the couple hit the road to Auckland to claim their prize from Lotto's Head office.
"I definitely made sure my wallet was safely in my pocket the whole way," he said.
Even after pocketing the $1m win the good news was only just beginning to sink in.
"My wife and I are so happy, and we're excited to be able to set ourselves up for the future," the man shared.
He said the couple's plans for the win included supporting some organisations close to their hearts.
Meadow Park Store owner Dharmesh was ecstatic to help change someone's life by selling the store's second major Lotto win.
"I'm very proud I have made someone a millionaire, I'm so happy," he said.
The first time the store sold a winning First Division ticket was last year when a customer walked away with half a million dollars.
He described how every single customer had heaped praise on the store for putting the winning Lotto ticket in the hands of a Northlander.
