"I opened up the Lotto NZ App and watched as it started checking my ticket – it didn't take long before I realised there was a line where all the numbers were being circled off – they just kept coming. It was such a surreal feeling, I honestly couldn't believe what I was seeing."
With a $1 million winning Lotto ticket staring back at him, the winner was left dumbstruck as he absorbed the big news. He was so quiet in fact, that his wife noticed something a bit strange was going on at the other end of the breakfast table.
"I wondered what was going on – he was looking at his phone pretty intently. It took a few moments before I managed to get his attention – that's when he showed me the ticket and said we'd won First Division… I was speechless. We just sat there at the table looking at each other in complete shock," said the man's wife.
"It's funny, because that morning I had seen an article online saying that someone in Christchurch had won. But it truly never even crossed my mind that it could possibly be us." she said.
After enjoying a quiet day in their bubble, the couple then spent Sunday evening writing a wish-list of everything they would like to do with their winnings.
"We're actually expecting a baby soon, so this win truly couldn't have come at a better time. Being in lockdown we've had plenty of time to think about what we want to do with our winnings – we made a bit of thing of it on Sunday evening actually.
"It was surreal sitting together, dreaming about all the things we could do with $1 million – and then realising that it's all entirely possible now. It's going to make such an enormous difference to us as a family," said the man.
"You always hope to win Lotto – dreaming about what you would do is part of the fun. But for it to happen to us… it's almost unbelievable. We're simply over the moon."
The $1 million winning Lotto First Division ticket was sold on MyLotto for the most recent draw on Saturday.
