Winner keeping too quiet to be local, town reckons

Curious residents have kept Young and Susie Yeo busy since it was revealed they sold a winning ticket. Photo / Christine Cornege

Locals in Kihikihi believe the town's first millionaire Powerball winner is likely to have been a visitor passing through.

As of last night, the identity of Kihikihi's $5.5 million Powerball winner remained a mystery and the lucky punter, who bought the winning ticket from the Kihikihi Bookshop, had still not claimed the prize.

The $5.5 million winning ticket was made up of a first division win of $500,000 plus Powerball of $5 million, the first time the major jackpot had been struck in the town.

Kihikihi Bookshop owner Young Yeo said he had received a vase of flowers yesterday to congratulate him on the store's first Powerball win, but it was not from the lucky winner.

Things had been busier than normal with a lot of people coming in to check their tickets "but really they just wanted to know who had won", he said.

"Everyone wants to know, of course, but I don't think anyone does know, yet."

Leah Te Huia, duty manager at the Star Tavern, said locals seemed resigned to the fact that it was probably somebody passing through town who had won the big prize.

She said three busloads of visitors, some from Tokoroa, Te Kuiti and New Plymouth, were in Kihikihi last week for sporting events and a tangi.

"All of these buses park straight outside the Lotto store so I'm pretty sure some of these people would have gone in and bought a ticket."

Ms Te Huia said it was unlike people in Kihikihi to keep things quiet for so long and if the winner was a local the secret would have been out bynow.

"If it is a local he is keeping himself pretty anonymous," she said.

"If someone local won it someone else would get wind of it but unfortunately no one knows anything, which is a shame because it would have been very nice for our community."

Lotteries Commission spokeswoman Karen Jones said last night that the winning ticket had still not been presented. Nor had the winner called the Lotteries Commission.

Earlier, she said it was unlikely the winner would present theirticket at the place where they boughtit from, particularly in a smalltown.

"We have had no contact at all from our Powerball winner so if they know, they are lying low."

The Powerball win is the second in three weeks and the second big win for the Waikato this year after former Huntly supermarket worker Trevor from Te Kauwhata won $26.5 million on March 31.