Hokitika winner dodges heat and pub shout

Hokitika is not a big place - about 4000 people, who all supposedly know each other, and about 1000 houses nestled between the sea and the mountains.

It is a day on which a winner would want to celebrate, share their spoils, thank the heavens, and party on.

The weather is sunny and balmy, people are on holiday because it is Westland's Anniversary Day, and the wide, if somewhat empty, streets of Hokitika are ready for action.

The stretches of tin roofs, wooden bungalows, and open unfenced sections provide a perfect setting for communal bunting, balloons, and trestle tables.

However, if somebody was letting their hair down they were doing it quietly behind closed doors.

Hokitika was alive yesterday but it was mainly with good-natured rumour and speculation. Who could the winner be?

Someone won New Zealand's largest Lotto prize of $11.2 million on Saturday after buying a ticket at Hokitika's New World supermarket.

The hottest lead last night was the mysterious arrival of a helicopter on Sunday which allegedly landed on the beachfront outside a house, took on a passenger, and then departed.

An ordinary incident or the furtive actions of millionaires trying to sneak off to the big smoke to collect their cash, locals are asking.

Earlier in the day the name on everybody's lips was the Glass family. Few could think of a more deserving or popular winner.

A generous, hardworking, churchgoing family with five daughters aged between 15 and 24. Mother Joyann, father Noel, and daughters Melanie, Amy, Wendy, Hayley, and Stephanie.

Joyann Glass was a good sport about it. She thought it was very funny.

"Don't worry, I would have told everybody straight away," she said. "But we hardly ever buy Lotto tickets. This is as close as we get to $11m."

Melanie, over from Christchurch for the day, also thought it was a hoot. She said they were like the Bennet family in Pride and Prejudice - five unmarried daughters without substantial financial backing. "We'd have no trouble getting husbands if we had won," she laughed.

So on to the next likely candidates, the Kilkellys. No chance mate, came the reply. Off to see Jacinta who admitted she was recladding the house but not with the Lotto winnings. Sorry.

Maybe the winner was filling in the day with a contemplative walk along Hokitika Beach. The beach was deserted but for a few souls strolling among the driftwood.

Swedish tourists Daniel Mollir and Sara Janson were sunning themselves. They knew about the local win but, alas, they had not bought a ticket.

Jackie Hendry was watching her daughter, Deborah, and Deborah's friend, Angela Diedrichs, braving the water. No, she had not won, she confessed, but if the winner was looking for a single mum with multiple sclerosis she was ready and willing, she joked.

"It would change you and change the way people would look at you," she added on a more serious note. Deborah said the win would be good. Mum would be able to buy her a pogo stick and a scooter.

To the pubs then where the winner would be bound to be shouting. A short drive from Hokitika takes you to the Kaniere Bridge Tavern, not far from the Westland Milk Products factory.

The patrons, however, have their money on the bar. They are buying their own drinks, expertly poured by local electrician Murray Sutherland.

If he had won everyone in the town would be $1000 richer, he said. Then he would give his kids a million each and buy a boat and campervan.

Alan Mitchell, Flea to his mates, said the Lotto win was the top topic of conversation in town.

"Everyone is asking everybody else what they are going to spend the money on.

"I've heard so many rumours it's impossible to keep track. You can't take any of them seriously," he said. Of the winners he said: "I just hope it doesn't stuff them." He meant it kindly.

- NZPA