Lotto: Ōpōtiki couple win $12.5 million Powerball, check winning ticket just before falling asleep

An Ōpōtiki couple who landed a $12.5 million Lotto jackpot say they had a hunch they might have the winning ticket - and couldn’t fall asleep until they had checked it.

The couple, who do not want to be named, said they were coming to terms with landing the rich prize and “still can’t wrap our heads around it”.

“We were about to go to sleep, but I suddenly had this feeling that I just had to check it,” said the man.

He checked the MyLotto app and, when he saw the numbers, he got “straight up in bed and shouted, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’

“It felt we were in a dream – like maybe we had actually fallen asleep and none of it was real. We just kept saying to each other … ‘Are we going to wake up now?’”

The couple said they struggled to sleep that night after the big news.

The man said he usually slept well but, after finding out they had won, he “couldn’t sleep at all that night, or the night after”.

Now that the win has been claimed, the couple said they would be taking some time to think about what the money meant for them and their family.

“Of course, we want to help our families, but we don’t know what that looks like yet.

“We still can’t wrap our heads around it. It’s going to take a while to process before we make any decisions.”

2025 Powerball wins

The Ōpōtiki couple became New Zealand’s 14th Powerball multimillionaires of 2025.

January 8: $7 million, MyLotto, Wellington

January 22: $8.3m, MyLotto, Taranaki

February 8: $10.5m, Glenview Centre Lotto & Post, Hamilton

February 26: $10.5m, Paper Plus Waihī & Toyworld, Waihī

March 15: $5.5m, New World St Martins, Christchurch

March 15: $5.5m, New World Gardens, Dunedin

March 22: $5.3m, Windsor On the Spot Express, Port Chalmers

April 23: $23.3m, MyLotto, Auckland

May 21: $17.2m, New World Whitby, Porirua

June 21: $15.08m, Plaza Supervalue, Invercargill

June 21: $15.08m, MyLotto, Wellington

July 9: $10.3m, MyLotto, Christchurch

August 9: $20.25m, MyLotto, Christchurch

August 30: $12.5m, MyLotto, Ōpōtiki

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