Auckland woman claims $11.5 million Lotto win in lockdown

A young Auckland woman won $11.5 million in Lotto's Powerball First Division on Saturday night.

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, said she and her sister sat screaming in the car when they confirmed the win.

She said she happened to get up early on Sunday morning and was waiting for the rest of her household to wake when she saw an email from Lotto telling her she had a prize to claim.

"All I could think was 'Surely not'. I kind of just brushed it off and went back to what I was doing", she said.

It wasn't until after breakfast when the woman finally decided to check her ticket.

"I opened the Lotto NZ App and saw 'Congratulations' pop up almost straight away. I glanced at the prize and actually read it as $11,500. I was stoked with that.

"But after checking my ticket a few times, I looked at the prize amount more closely and started to second guess myself – $11,500,000 was staring back at me and it felt like an awful lot of zeros. I ended up typing the number into Google just to double check what I was seeing before I got too excited."

The woman then raced into her sister's bedroom to tell her

The pair went to the supermarket later that day and finally decided to call Lotto to confirm the win while they were in the carpark.

"It was unbelievable. My sister and I just sat in the car screaming – it was such a cool moment," the woman said.

"Being in lockdown means there isn't a lot we can do to celebrate, but I went straight into the supermarket and grabbed a few treats – we actually celebrated with ice creams in the car," said the woman.

The woman said she has always dreamed of buying her first home and will also share the winnings with her family to help set them up for the future.

"It means so much to me. I feel so incredibly lucky – I'll never forget this lockdown, that's for sure!"