Lotto winners have sleepless night after happy discovery

Countdown Tikipunga where a Whangarei woman bought her $1m winning Lotto ticket. Photo/John Stone

A Whangarei couple who won $1 million with Lotto First Division on Saturday didn't get much sleep that night.

But now they are planning what to do with their new-found wealth and are looking at upgrading their home, helping their kids and charities.

One of the pair, who does not want to be named, bought the winning ticket from Countdown Tikipunga and as she was getting ready for bed on Saturday decided to check the ticket.

"I got out my iPad, jumped on to Facebook and wrote down the winning numbers," she said.

Sitting at the kitchen table, the woman started checking the numbers one by one off her Lotto ticket.

"I just went tick, tick, tick and when I saw all the numbers lined up on one line, I thought 'Nah, this isn't right'," she said.

Doubtful that she had indeed hit the jackpot, she asked her husband to come over and check the ticket too.

"I said to him, 'Does this look right to you?' and he replied, 'Yeah, it looks right to me' - he wasn't even fazed," she said.

"When I explained that it meant we had just won $1 million, it was a totally different story. He started checking and re-checking the ticket."

With no way of confirming their millionaire status, the couple decided their best option was to go to bed and call Lotto NZ's head office in the morning.

"Well, we tried to sleep," she said.

"But I don't think we managed to drift off until 3am."

After confirming with Lotto HQ that they were indeed the winners, the couple headed to their local Lotto shop first thing to claim their prize.

"We went straight over to our daughter's house afterwards to celebrate with a cup of tea," the woman said.

With a $1 million boost to their bank account, the couple are starting to think about what they want to do with their windfall.

"We're going to upgrade the house, help the kids and invest the rest. We also have a few charities in mind that we'd like to donate to. It's been really fun."