Lucky Lotto winner comes forward after winning ticket was stashed in car's glove box

A family syndicate spanning three generations is the first to come forward to claim its share of a massive $19.1m jackpot nearly a week after it was drawn.

The winner has revealed the ticket sat for days in a vehicle glove box as he mustered enough courage to take a look at the numbers.

"As soon as I saw the winning numbers in the paper the next day, I thought they looked very familiar," said the winner, who lives in the Wairarapa but wishes to remain anonymous.

"But I couldn't bring myself to check our ticket, which was sitting in the glove box of my car. I kept eyeing up the car, going outside and opening the door then shutting it and turning back to the house without so much as looking at the ticket.

"I kept seeing things in the paper saying the prize hadn't been claimed, so in the end I stood up and told my wife, 'This is it – I'm checking it!' and walked out to the car.

"I saw the winning line straight away and thought, 'Hello, yeah. Those are the numbers in the paper'. Then I put the ticket back in the glove box and ran inside to check the paper again.

He said he kept running back and forth between the car and the house to check and re-check the numbers before finally breaking the good news to his wife.

"I ran to my wife shouting 'We've got it, we've got it!' I was in such a state, crying and howling and holding my chest, so we decided to call my son-in-law to work out what the heck to do next," he said.

His son-in-law barely understood a word when he called but heard the magic words "$19m", "Powerball", and "we've got it".

"I told him to settle down and have a cup of tea while he waited for us to get there. I thought he was probably checking an old ticket," he said.

Once everyone was gathered they pored over the winning ticket checking the numbers.

"Everyone was standing in the lounge checking the ticket over and over again. It took a while before they all believed me," said the winner.

"But when they did, they all rushed in and hugged me. It was the first time I've ever had so many kisses," laughed the winner.

The winners took their ticket to a local Lotto store to claim their multi-million-dollar prize.

They were now looking forward to enjoying their money, including helping local charities.

A second winning ticket sold in Warkworth is still unclaimed.

The ticket, sold a the Greytown Fresh Choice supermarket, used numbers that were special to the extended family.

Fresh Choice owner Chris Ward said the winning ticket hadn't been checked at his supermarket, but he had heard a rumour from a Lotto representative that it may have been taken to a store in Upper Hutt.

He wished the winners all the best with their new-found fortune.

The win was the first ever Powerball First Division triumph for Greytown, and the biggest prize won by a ticket purchased in the town since July 1993, when a First Division win scooped $460,027.

The other winning ticket worth $19.1 million was purchased at New World in Warkworth, and the owner is yet to come forward.