A Wellington tradie has the long weekend traffic chaos to thank after his decision to stay put landed him a $1 million Lotto prize.
The tradie, who wished to remain anonymous, had planned to travel north to visit family, but changed his mind after hearing about the road closures on State Highway 1 on Friday.
"I knocked off work early on Friday, but as soon as I heard that there had been a bit of a major on the road going north, I thought 'nah, not going to happen — I'll just stay put this weekend'," he said.
On the way home he stopped at the supermarket and checked his Lotto ticket from Wednesday.
"When I handed it over I asked the Lotto lady: 'Am I a millionaire today?' She said: 'No, not today'. We had a bit of laugh and I told her I'd be back to claim the big one another day."
He bought a new ticket and tucked it into his phone case, it wasn't until Sunday morning he decided to check it.
"Sunday is always a bit of a chill day for me, so when I saw my ticket sitting on my desk I thought I better check it."
Pulling up the winning numbers on his phone, he checked the numbers off one by one.
"When I saw I'd matched the first three or four numbers in a row I thought: 'Oh yeah, this looks alright, I might've won a $100'. Then the next I knew, I had all six in a row."
He triple-checked the winning numbers before calling his mum.
"Mum really didn't believe me — in fact, it wasn't until I gave Lotto NZ a call and had a chat to them that I could actually believe it was true."
Wanting to celebrate with his family in person, he decided to head north after all — this time by plane.
"It was a bit of an upgrade to how I normally travel, but it was totally worth it to see everyone. After all, it's not every day you win a million dollars."
He was now turning his attention on how to spend his winnings.
"I'd really like to go out on my own and start my own business. Apart from that, I might buy a bit of land and, of course, I'll help out family.
"I'm not going to rush into anything straight away — I'm just soaking it all up for now."
The winning ticket was sold Countdown Newtown for the Lotto draw on Saturday, October 20.
