A man has scooped two major Lotto wins just one week apart - making him an instant millionaire.
The Whangārei local won two major Lotto prizes exactly one week apart – including $1 million on a Bonus Ticket.
The man won just over $27,000 with Lotto Second Division in last Wednesday's Lotto draw, and then got the surprise of his life after discovering he had done it again – this time winning $1 million with Lotto First Division on Wednesday.
The man's wife told him about the town's $1 million win when he was getting ready for work on Thursday morning.
"She asked me where I had gotten my Lotto ticket from as someone had won $1 million from Countdown Whangarei," said the man, who wishes to remain anonymous.
"I told her I wasn't 100 per cent sure if I had picked it up from that exact store, but that I would check later on in the day."
The man went to work as normal but checked his ticket during the day.
"I had a bit of a funny feeling when I went into the store, I guess it had been in the back of my head all day that maybe it could me," he said.
He scanned his ticket in the self-checker and saw the words "Division 1" appear on screen.
"I got such a fright when I saw those words, I had to scan the barcode a couple more times to make sure I wasn't seeing anything."
The man handed his ticket to the woman at the Lotto counter to check and found he was a millionaire.
Despite the sudden windfall, the man went back to work before going home a bit earlier than usual to tell his wife the good news.
"As soon as I saw him at the front door with that grin on his face, holding the green piece of paper I knew what had happened," said the man's wife.
"I had seen the green paper a week earlier when we had won Second Division, so knew he had won the big one."
The couple celebrated with pizza and wine while contemplating their recent winning streak.
"We honestly can't believe it. The whole thing is so uncanny – I still can't believe we won $1 million on a free ticket! It just goes to show you never know what can happen."