Man unaware he was sitting on $9.4m ticket

An Auckland man who yesterday handed a week-old Lotto ticket in at a Manukau shop discovered it was worth $9.4 million.

New Zealand Lotteries Commission chief executive Trevor Hall said the man, who wants to remain anonymous, bought the ticket last Saturday at Manukau City Lotto and had not checked it until returning there yesterday.

He won a total prize of $9,357,086 -- $8,838,713 from winning Powerball first division and $518,373 from also winning Lotto first division.

"I knew that a ticket from Manukau City had won it, and I had even joked about it earlier on with my family," the man later told the Lotteries Commission.

"The girl in the shop told me she had to call Wellington about my ticket and that I would have to wait five minutes. "I waited and time went on and on, it seemed like forever, and then she came back and told me I'd won the big one." The windfall is the seventh biggest Powerball win ever by a single ticket. The winner, who is a regular Lotto player, said the windfall couldn't have come at a better time for him and his family with Christmas and other family celebrations coming up.

He plans to share the winnings with family members, as well as treating himself to a new motorbike.

- NZPA