$18 million Lotto Powerball prize claimed, ticket sold in Whangaparaoa

A West Auckland couple's trip to the beach ended with scooping an $18.2 million Lotto win.

The couple, who want to remain anonymous, went to Shakespear Regional Park on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula and stopped by the local Four Square to pick up a ticket.

The man, who's a regular lotto player, has played the exact same numbers for the last few years after he won $500 with them.

"I just thought they were lucky as I had never won anything before that, so I've continued to play the numbers since."

He hadn't seen the news that the winning ticket had been sold in Whangaparoa and just happened to check his ticket under the self scanner at his local supermarket on Sunday morning.

It displayed: "First Division winner."

"I didn't know what that meant. I thought maybe I had won a bonus ticket or maybe $25 but never thought I had won the big one," he said.

The man asked for help from the Lotto operator, who took him aside and quietly told him that he had won Powerball.

"He said to me, 'Your life has just changed forever'."

After attempting to regain his composure, the man finished his grocery shopping and got home an hour later. He put the ticket straight in the safe while he thought about how to tell his wife.

"He said 'I need to talk to you', but I wasn't really listening to him," said the wife.

"He said 'Sit down. Sit down now! I need to talk to you'. So I thought to myself 'Oh my gosh, what does he want'?"

The man showed his wife a picture of the winning numbers on their iPad and said: "That is us."

She didn't understand so he lined up his ticket with the winning numbers and said: "We have won $18.2 million".

"I couldn't believe it, I still can't believe it. It feels like we are walking around in a dream," she said.

The couple celebrated with a bottle of fine red wine and said they haven't slept properly since.

They plan to use the money to support friends and family, take overseas holidays and donate to a number of charities.

This is the fourth biggest Powerball win in 2019. In January, a young woman from Inglewood claimed $22.3 million and last month two Auckland players each won $19.1 million.

Winning ticket sold at Whangaparaoa store

The Four Square store on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula sold the winning Powerball ticket worth $18,200,000.

The store owner said it was the first time the Four Square at Gulf Harbour had sold a winning first division ticket in the three years he had owned the business.

"People have been coming in and talking about," the owner said on Sunday.

Gulf Harbour is a well-to-do community on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, 45km north of downtown Auckland. It has one of the country's largest marinas and a world class golf course that has hosted the New Zealand Open and World Cup of Golf.

Auckland councillor Wayne Walker, who lives at Manly on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, had said he hoped the winner was a local.

It could have been someone who visited the Shakespear Regional Park at the end of the peninsula or a boat owner from outside the area, but Walker did not think that was likely.

"I've got two or three Lotto tickets stashed away. I must go and check on them," said Walker, who did not buy a ticket at the Four Square this week.

The ticket was one of five to share first division's million dollars, but unlike the other four it also had the lucky Powerball number 5 for the $18 million jackpot.

The other First Division $200,000 were bought from Paper Plus Taupo, Pak N Save Kilbirnie in Wellington, Pak N Save Riccarton in Christchurch, and on MyLotto by a player from Auckland.

The biggest winners in Lotto's powerball history were a couple from Hibiscus Coast on the northern outskirts of Auckland who won $44m after buying a ticket from the Dairy Flat Foodmart in November 2016. They have remained anonymous.