She told the Herald she hid the ticket inside a Monty Python DVD case and slept with it under her pillow before cashing it in first thing the next morning.
The regular Lotto player, who asked to remain anonymous, planned to go to bed early but saw the ticket sitting on her bedside table and checked it on her Lotto NZ app before turning in and discovered she was a major winner.
Two weeks earlier Tauranga man Lou Te Keeti took home $10.3 million after winning Lotto Powerball.