Lotto: Young Auckland couple celebrates $4.3 million Powerball win with champagne, takeaways

An Auckland man leapt on his sofa in joy after finding out he and his partner won more than $4 million in the latest Lotto Powerball jackpot.

The young Auckland couple won $4.3 million in last Wednesday’s draw – made up of $4m from Powerball First Division and $333,333 from Lotto First Division.

The Hibiscus Coast pair was shocked after checking their MyLotto ticket to find they were New Zealand’s newest multi-millionaires.

The couple, who wish to remain anonymous, play occasionally and had forgotten about the draw until Thursday evening.

“We finally sat down at the end of the day to watch our programme and I saw an advert for Powerball being $4m, so I said to my partner ‘Oh it must have been won on Wednesday – I wonder who won it’,” the man said.

“I logged in to MyLotto, but we were still watching our programme, so I wasn’t really paying attention… until it got to five numbers, that’s when I started to feel a bit antsy.”

Before they knew it, every number on one line of their ticket had turned blue and the winning music played.

“I jumped up off the sofa and shouted ‘It’s us! We’ve won!’”, the man said.

His partner was a bit more reserved.

“I just kept thinking it couldn’t be true, I didn’t want to get my hopes up,” she said.

After replaying the virtual draw many times, the man sent a screenshot of their ticket to a family member asking them to confirm if what they were seeing was correct.

“She messaged straight back and said ‘Congratulations, looks like you’ve just won $4.3m!’

“That’s when I started to think it might actually be true”.

The couple shared the news with their parents who were excited for the couple.

“They all know what this means for us and our future, so it felt great to share it with them,” said the man.

They decided to celebrate with champagne and takeaways.

“It’s funny, we stopped at the shop to buy some champagne, but we’ve only ever bought a $20 bottle of Prosecco, so I was quite overwhelmed trying to decide what to buy,” he joked.

“He came running back out to the car saying, ‘I don’t know what to buy, what’s the budget?’” his partner said.

The win still feels surreal for the couple.

“On Saturday morning, we still got up, put on our Crocs, grabbed a coffee and took the dog out as normal – it just doesn’t feel real. I don’t think I’ll fully believe it until I see it in the bank,” the man said.

With the win safely claimed, the couple are looking forward to what the future holds.

“This win is life-changing, it means we can pay off the mortgage and finish renovating our home.

“We’re well overdue a new car so we’ll be doing that sooner than we had planned,” he said.

“We also have family overseas, so this means we can visit them a bit more regularly now too.”

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