The latest winning $10m Lotto Powerball ticket has gone to Wairoa.
Wairoa is abuzz after a single lucky Lotto play struck it rich bagging the top $10 million Lotto prize.
The winning ticket was bought at New World Wairoa and the store’s Lotto manager is thrilled one customer’s life may have changed for the better.
This morning the supermarket’s Lotto manager was over the moon with delight.
“I’m so excited - even if it’s not me who has won. For my town it’s a big thing,” said Michele Lynch.
“It’s going to be the talk of the town for the whole week.”
Lynch said everyone was speculating who had won but all hoped that it would be a resident.
“We’re all wishing it was going to be a local from Wairoa - that’s all we wish for.”
She said customers noted the large jackpots kept going elsewhere across the country but she was always confident Wairoa would be in the money “one day”.
“I always told them ‘We’re going to get it one day, just keep on trying’.”
Lynch said the store had just opened for the day and so far the winner had not come forward.
She was hurriedly trying to find the poster that showed the store had won the major prize to put on the front window.
Hawke’s Bay punters have flooded social media with their hopes that it has gone to a local resident, with people urged to check to see if they are the cyclone-ravaged town’s newest millionaire.
“Woohoo yea go Wairoa!! Love seeing our HB people get it and especially smaller places like Wairoa who would benefit so much more! I’m so happy for the whanau who won this!” posted Joelene Fontaine on Facebook.
“Congratulations whoever you are. Couldn’t have come at a better time,” posted Paul King.
“Knowing Wairoa whānau they will put it straight back into whānau,” wrote Jessica Karauria.
The win comes some seven months after the small north Hawke’s Bay township was inundated by floodwaters from Cyclone Gabrielle. More than 1.5 metres of water flowed through the town’s streets when the Wairoa River breached its banks.
Last night two other players won Division One, but without the Powerball number their tickets are worth only $333,333 each.
Those tickets were bought from Fresh Choice Geraldine and on MyLotto by a player from Auckland.
The win comes soon after a woman popped into the supermarket for a chocolate bar, bought a Lotto ticket on a whim and became one of New Zealand’s biggest prize winners.
The woman and her husband from Paraparaumu won an enormous $37.125m Powerball prize last month - the third-largest prize won by a single ticket in Lotto NZ’s history.
The couple, who wish to remain anonymous, said they only buy a ticket when the jackpot is over $30m - and that the latest ticket was bought at the very last minute.
“I was on my way home after work and was craving a chocolate bar, so I quickly popped into the supermarket,” the woman said.
“While I was there, I noticed the high jackpot and thought I’d grab a Lucky Dip at the same time.”
With her chocolate bar and yellow ticket in hand, the woman headed home. Hours later, her husband woke her with the amazing news that has turned their lives upside down.
“I was still up and scrolling online - trying to catch some footage of the Women’s World Cup,” the man said.
“I came across a news item about the jackpot being struck in Kāpiti, along with a list of the winning numbers. So, I grabbed our ticket and began matching our numbers against the winning ones. It slowly dawned on me that one of our lines seemed to have all the winning numbers - including the Powerball. I couldn’t believe it!” the man said.
The annual event means closures for some lanes on the city's harbour bridge.