Missing Powerball winner was on holiday

Photo / Michael Craig

An Auckland woman has missed out on $40,301 by being on a three-week holiday - but that's a small matter when today her bank balance rises by $17,723,538.

The mystery of the missing multi-millionaire was finally solved yesterday, when the woman claimed the $17.7 million Powerball prize.

The winning ticket was bought at Take Note Dinsdale in Hamilton, but for almost three weeks the winner failed to come forward.

She walked into the Lotto office yesterday literally shaking.

"I still don't believe it's real," she said. "I was scared when I found out I'd won."

The woman said she was not a regular Lotto player and had only bought the ticket on a whim while passing through Hamilton.

She was drawn by the hype around the $34 million - but promptly forgot about it as she left on holiday.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, only discovered this week after coming home that she was the big winner. It took her a couple of days for the shock to settle before she could make her way down to Wellington.

The earliest the woman could have claimed the money was Monday, April 12. By claiming it yesterday, she forwent 17 days of interest payments at 5 per cent a year.

Compounded daily, the interest adds up to just over $40,000 for the 17 days - money that has gone into future Lotto prizes.

When Lotto staff asked her what she might use her prize for, all she could say was that she would donate to charity. For now, she wants to give to Christchurch - she said she would consider her other options down the track, once the reality of the win had sunk in. "I'm going to keep things simple, keep working, live my normal life," she said.

While she does, she will earn about $2400 a day just by not touching the money, an amount that will slowly increase for each day that she cannot make up her mind about what to do with it.

In a year she will have earned up to $886,000, bumping up her interest payments by about a further $100 a day. Her prize is the fifth-equal largest Powerball prize, made up of $17,612,427 from Powerball First Division and $111,111 from Lotto First Division.

The other winning $17.7 million Powerball ticket won in the same draw was sold at Dannevirke New World and was claimed shortly after the draw.