Canterbury Lotto winning streak: Three millionaires in four days

Three lucky Lotto-playing Cantabrians have become millionaires over the last week. Illustration / Andrew Louis

• Canterbury has entered a Lotto winning streak with three winners in four days, totalling $3.5 million.
• An Ashburton man won $1.5m in Lotto NZ’s Strike “Must Be Won” draw.
• A Christchurch woman won $1m with Lotto First Division on Saturday.

Canterbury is on a Lotto streak with three lucky winners in the last four days taking home a combined $3.5 million.

The biggest win of the trio went to an Ashburton man who on Saturday night became the first ever person to win the $1.5m jackpot in Lotto NZ’s Strike ‘Must Be Won’ draw.

The man, who did not to be named, said he was “walking around in a daze” after he found out he’d won from a bonus ticket he had won the draw before.

“It flashed up with First Division winner – but I didn’t know how much I’d won,” he said.

The store owner took the man into the office before sharing the news with him.

“He said, ‘you’d better come with me‘ and when we were in the office, he handed me a slip of paper and said, ‘there you go – you’ve just won $1.5m’,” the man said.

The man said he was “gobsmacked”.

“I just stared at it and then I’m sure a few choice words slipped out,” he said.

The man said as much as it’s life-changing, he will continue on as normal until he has decided what he will do with the cash.

On the other side of the Rakaia River, a Christchurch woman also had a weekend to remember after winning $1m with Lotto First Division on Saturday night.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, claimed her prize on Sunday after checking her ticket at home that morning with her daughter.

“I pulled up the results on MyLotto and checked off the numbers one by one. When I saw all six, I couldn’t believe it, it didn’t feel real,” she said.

“I had to get my daughter to check it for me to make sure it was correct.”

The woman was looking forward to telling her other children later that day and said the win was going to benefit them all.

“What an amazing time to win – right before Christmas – it’s going to be extra special this year,” she said.

The two sizeable wins rounded off a big week of Lotto across Canterbury.

Three days earlier, another lucky player from Christchurch scored $1m with Lotto First Division after buying their ticket for the Wednesday night draw at New Brighton Lotto & Discounter.