Bluechip investors win first division Lotto

A Bay of Plenty couple who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars with the collapse of property investment company Blue Clip are over the moon after winning a share of Lotto's first division at the weekend.

The Mt Maunganui winners, who do not wish to be named, won $216,279 after a last-minute Lotto ticket purchase on Saturday afternoon.

The couple told NZ Lotteries they had battled through the last year trying to recover their Blue Chip investment.

"It's been a really stressful year for us so we're shocked with the win, it couldn't have come at a better time."

The winning ticket was sold at Mt Maunganui New World, where the couple buy their tickets every week.

The weekend's $16.3 million Powerball prize, won by a ticket sold at Countdown in Cambridge, was claimed by a Cambridge local earlier this week.

- NZPA