An Auckland family has claimed the largest Lotto NZ prize in history.
The family is now $44.67 million richer after last weekend's draw, and is set to tick off their bucket list dreams which have previously been out of reach.
Last Saturday, the win was set to be equal with the $44.06 million won in 2016. However, the family beat this record by playing 10 lines of the same Lotto numbers, each with a different Powerball number.
This meant, along with winning $44 million from the Powerball First Division draw, they also won 10 shares of Lotto First Division – a total of $666,670.
After watching Saturday night’s draw, the woman texted her daughter telling her one person had won the huge jackpot, Lotto NZ said.
The family soon joined together on a video call, and were in disbelief. A day later, the family met up and went out for dinner to celebrate.
"It was surreal, we could hear people in the restaurant talking about the $44 million prize, and I can remember saying in a hushed voice,‘if only they knew'," said the son.
With the prize now claimed, they were going to take some time to let the win sink in before making any big decisions.
However, the family already have a few ideas of what they’d like to do.
“We’re a hard-working family but my children owning their own homes has always been just out of reach, so first of all, I’d like to get them into homes of their own, which will be really special,” said the woman.
“I’ve only ever been overseas on a work trip, so we’re looking forward to a family holiday,” she said.
“We have some destinations in mind that have been ‘bucket list’ places – but only of our dreams, as we never thought it would be possible… and now it is,” said the daughter.
Community and fundraising was also important to the family, and they said they were also looking forward to continuing to give back.
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