“We picked the numbers together a long time agoand have been playing them ever since,” the woman said.
The next day, the woman was going to clean her car when she heard on the radio that a MyLotto player from Taranaki had won.
“I was on my way out the door when I heard the news and said to my husband, ‘I’d just better check the ticket because otherwise I’d be thinking it could be me, it could be me’,” she laughed.
A Taranaki couple have won $8.3 million after playing the same numbers for 20 years. File photo
The woman grabbed her iPad and logged in to MyLotto to watch the virtual draw.
“I watched all the numbers come up one after the other – I was just speechless – and then when I saw the amount, it was absolutely incredible,” she said.
“There were a few tears, that’s for sure. We kept looking at the ticket to check it was real – it was unbelievable.”
The lucky couple spent the rest of the day talking about what they wanted to do with their winnings, but said life would not change significantly.
“We’re not going to make any immediate big decisions but one thing we did decide on straight away is how we’re going to help our family,” the woman said.
“We’re excited to get together and tell them the good news, when the time is right.”
Meanwhile, two other players picked up $333,333 in the same draw with Lotto First Division. The winning tickets were sold at Pak’nSave Wairau Rd in Auckland and on MyLotto to a player from Rotorua.
