'Ordinary' pair scoop big payout

The $18 million Lotto winners are a middle-aged couple from Auckland - and not the Northland town of Kaeo, where the ticket was sold.

Geoff Henderson, 58, of Blockhouse Bay confirmed to the Herald on Sunday that he and his wife Helen were the winners of Lotto's biggest giveaway.

He had bought the ticket while the couple spent the weekend at their Tauranga Bay property, east of Kaeo.

"We're just ordinary people," said Helen Henderson, 59.

She said the stress of the win had staggered the couple and they were having trouble coping. She had recently left hospital after cancer treatment and was concerned the stress could put her back there.

Mr Henderson, who has been married to Helen for 15 years, said his colleagues at Panasonic and friends had been overjoyed for him - there had been "very little" negative feedback.

He had stayed at work last week, handing in his notice on Tuesday. He will finish work as the company's credit control manager in one month.

Mr Henderson said he was concerned the news could attract unwelcome attention to his mother, who was well-known in Kaeo.

He had asked her to move from her home on Friday, as news of the win filtered through the small community. When Mr Henderson turned to the Lotteries Commission for advice on Friday, he was told: "Leave the country." The couple's modest suburban home was deserted yesterday.

The Hendersons stay in a caravan when they are at their Tauranga Bay property, where the only established building is a garage with basic facilities.

They drove to town on the Friday before the May 20 Lotto draw to visit Mr Henderson's mother, who was working at the Whangaroa Museum, and to pick up some bread and milk from the local Four Square.

The Hendersons do not always buy a Lotto ticket, but this time they got a Lucky Dip with Power Ball, and drove back to their caravan.

They didn't find out the winner was from Kaeo until the next morning, when one of Helen's sons rang to ask them if they had bought a ticket.

At first they could not find the ticket - eventually they found it in the car. Helen's son read out the numbers from the newspaper, but one wasn't very clear, and they thought they had won a lower division.

When another son rang, they realised they had the big one. Moira Henderson arrived as her daughter-in-law was on the phone, standing in the garage in her nightgown, "laughing her head off". And then they didn't quite know what to do with themselves, said Moira Henderson.

They tidied up the kitchen - the couple had, contrary to media reports, already had breakfast. Helen had a bath.

The Hendersons packed up the car, and drove to Auckland. By Kerikeri, anxiety got the better of them and they stopped to verify their ticket.

The shopkeepers told them to get to Wellington as soon as possible. It was only at Kawakawa, a half an hour out of Whangarei, it started to hit.

"Geoffrey said he just took his foot off the accelerator," his mother said. "He let all the other cars pass him. He was finally starting to believe it. I still don't believe it. It doesn't happen to people like us. We are just an ordinary family, we are. But I guess there are no ordinary families, are there?"

Though the couple are not extravagant, they splashed out once in Wellington, said Moira Henderson, staying in a boutique hotel.

"Helen called and said they had two bathrooms. She couldn't work out what anyone would do with two bathrooms."

The couple are unsure of what to do with the money. Mr Henderson was going to talk to financial advisers this week, his mother said.

"Where do you start? It's just so much money. They're all up in the air. They have to settle down now."

Moira Henderson said she was glad she did not have the winning ticket, because it would change you, even if you tried not to let it.

The family are planning to lie low now that the news is out - but Moira Henderson was happy she could finally tell people. "It's not easy, keeping something like that secret. Thank goodness I can tell people now. "

Despite the locals' hopes of some of the money being used to boost the community, it seems an unlikely prospect.

Moira Henderson said the family loved the area. As one of three children of Moira and the late Daniel Henderson, former assistant editor of the New Zealand Herald, Mr Henderson and the family would spend their holidays at their property on the Whangaroa headland where Moira Henderson now spends her retirement.

Mr Henderson's workmate Leon Malopito said word spread quickly after an email went out on Monday announcing his retirement.

"He's been the talk of the workplace. He's just the happiest guy in the world. He's always got a big smile on his face."

Another colleague, Grant Shaw, said Mr Henderson had spent the week "working just as hard as he always did".

- additional reporting, Miles Erwin