An Auckland woman returned home to find her husband lying on the floor in "shock" after discovering they'd won Lotto's $15m Powerball jackpot.
The couple, who were regular Lotto players, bagged the $15.25 million prize in last week's Powerball draw with a $6 ticket purchased through MyLotto.
The man told Lotto NZ he was preparing a late dinner while waiting for his wife to get home when he decided to check their ticket.
"I remember the exact time – it was 9:47pm – that was the time my life changed," he told Lotto NZ.
Overwhelmed by the news, the man immediately phoned his wife, who initially feared something terrible had happened.
"He was screaming and crying down the phone, I thought something was wrong until he finally managed to tell me what had happened,” she recalled.
The woman said she was shaking for the remainder of her drive home and ran inside as soon as she arrived.
There, she found her husband lying on the floor in shock, struggling to process their newfound fortune.
“We hugged and I tried to calm him down, it was very emotional,” she said.
The pair spent the rest of the evening coming to terms with their win, unable to get any sleep.
“We couldn’t sleep, but we also didn’t want to in case we woke up and it was all a dream,” the woman said.
The couple had stuck with the same $6 Powerball ticket featuring numbers representing important dates in their lives, including birthdays, their engagement and wedding.
They continued using those numbers even after Lotto NZ introduced its new 14-ball Powerball game.
The Auckland pair were now the second winners under the game's new format.
While they were yet to decide how to spend their winnings, the man said the money would open up opportunities they had never imagined.
“This is life-changing for us. We have worked so hard for many years, and this gives us so much opportunity for our future,” he said.
"We really can’t believe it has happened to us."
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