Two families from Wellington and Richmond have spoken of their disbelief after winning $5 million each from Lotto's $10 million must be won draw.
Nobody struck the Division 1 jackpot on Saturday night — the final one to include 10 balls before moving to the new 14-ball format — therefore the jackpot rolled down to second division and was shared between the families.
The first to claim their $5.01 million from Powerball first and second division — including another $13,353 from Lotto second division — was a family syndicate from Richmond, near Nelson.
The couple said they first told their adult daughter, who didn't believe them.
"She said, 'Nah it’ll only be $5000 or something, give me a look,' and took the phone from me," said the dad.
"There was a lot of shrieking when we all realised it was real," said the mum.
They said the extended family would get together soon to celebrate their win and discuss their futures.
"At the moment we’re thinking it will go towards paying off mortgages or maybe new homes," she said.
The second winners were a Wellington family who found out about their win on Sunday evening.
"We were on the sofa when I checked the ticket. When I heard the winning music, I looked at my wife and said, 'Oh my god, we won'.
"She didn’t believe me at first, and to be honest I had doubts too, because we hadn't matched all six Lotto numbers."
"We did a bit of searching online and realised it had rolled down, and we were one of two winners.
“It was such a shock, all I could say was 'what the heck?'" said the man.
The couple struggled to sleep that night and have not yet decided what they will do with their win.
"We’re going to take some time to figure it all out. It still doesn’t feel real," he said.
The two lucky families were the final winners of the 10-ball Powerball game before the new 14-ball game begins.
The first draw under the format would be tonight, where the jackpot was $5 million.
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