"Of course my husband thought I was having him on."
The couple took the ticket to a local Lotto store to have it confirmed.
"That's when I went weak at the knees," she said.
"And for some reason I started laughing and couldn't stop. It was such a great feeling."
The couple told their children, who they intend to share the prize with.
"My daughter started screaming and laughing and shouting 'Mum's a millionaire!"'
The couple plan to buy their own house, a holiday house for the children and grand-children to enjoy spending time at together, and a boat to please the grandfather.
Meanwhile, all the talk at Hastings PAK'nSAVE yesterday - where the winning ticket was bought - was about the big win. Shoppers had plenty of ideas about how they would use the money.
The needs of charity seemed to be taking over from traditional dreams of holidays in the tropics, new homes and fast cars.
Marrietta Takiwa, of Flaxmere, reckoned she would give $1m to the Heart Foundation, $1m to "diabetes" and $1m to cancer research, and then split the rest evenly among the relatives.
"He's got nine brothers and sisters for a start," she said of her partner. "I'd divvy it out, so none of them are any richer than the rest."
Her partner said: "I'd set up something for the youth in Hastings."
Another shopper, who has "more or less" given up buying Lotto and Powerball tickets because he had never won anything said: "I hope it was one of the relatives.
"Then I'll have a party to go to."
