Lotto winner nabs $18m: Whangaparaoa Four Square abuzz after selling wining ticket

The Gulf Harbour Four Square in Whangaparaoa where the winning Lotto ticket was sold.

A Four Square store on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula sold last night's 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," said the owner, who is waiting to find out who bought the winning ticket.

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, said the winner was most probably a local, saying most people who shop at Gulf Harbour are locals.

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.

The next biggest winners are a West Auckland man who won $33m in 2013, followed by a syndicate of 10 women, all dental professionals, who won $30m after buying a ticket in Taupo in 2017.