By KATEE SHANKS in Whakatane
The first Wonka Golden Ticket has been found.
Self-confessed Ohope chocoholic Rachael Bailey, an Air Discovery pilot, says she feels like Charlie Bucket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Five tickets are hidden in Willy Wonka chocolate bars as part of a
competition promoting the new movie version of Roald Dahl's popular children's book.
As in the movie, the lucky finder of a rare Golden Ticket gets to tour a famous chocolate factory.
"It's amazing," Ms Bailey said.
"There are thousands of the chocolate bars throughout the country and I picked one of the winners.
"I have probably bought about five of the bars since the competition started but have given them all away with a standard comment - if you find a ticket it comes back."
But with the first bar she bought for herself ... "I saw the flash and thought it can't be happening - and then wondered if the promoters were being mean and playing a trick on me."
The 26-year-old told her flatmates she had a Golden Ticket and they asked her what it meant. "I don't know but I've got one," she told them.
Cloak and dagger processes followed with the ticket sent to a secret location to be verified.
"I'm such a big kid, it has all been such fun although I haven't really had a minute to myself to let things sink in yet.
"I have half expected Oompa Loompas to turn up at my door," she said of the movie's miniature factory workers.
Ms Bailey believed the five Golden Ticket winners would get to create their own chocolate bar while at the Nestle Factory in Britain.
The remaining four bars are somewhere out there and Ms Bailey's colleagues said they would continue to buy them in the hope they can go too.
All five winners receive a seven-day family trip for two adults and two children to London and York, including the trip to the chocolate factory, in April.
