Parties, shopping for Lotto winners

The $40m prize was shared among three winning tickets last weekend.

From sleeping in to indulging family, the lucky ones will be celebrating.

The three winners who shared last week's $40 million Lotto Powerball prize have revealed to the Weekend Herald what they plan to do on their first weekend since striking it lucky.

The winners each took home $13.3m, and all have decided to prioritise spending time with their family, although some large purchases are also on the agenda.

The winners from Hamiltonwill have a family celebration after buying their ticket online through MyLotto.

After finding out they had won, they had bacon, eggs and champagne for breakfast before jumping straight back into normal life last week by mowing the lawns. But they intend to relax this weekend.

"We haven't told too many people about our big win, so we are planning on sharing the good news with the family, then popping open a bottle of champagne or two to celebrate," they said.

"It's an amazing feeling knowing that you're going to be changing more than one life this weekend.

"We can't wait to share our good fortune around the family."

Te Awamutu's newest multi-millionaire is planning a celebratory weekend in the big smoke - after nearly giving away his winning ticket.

He bought two tickets for last weekend's draw from Oparau Roadhouse in Kawhia, and gave one to a friend for her birthday.

"When they told me that I'd won and then how much ... I can't tell you the first words out of my mouth, but let's just say there was quite a bit of swearing."

He's taking a group of loved ones up to Auckland for a weekend on the town.

"I'm shouting my family and a couple of good mates to a weekend away in Auckland to celebrate my big win. It's great being able to bring everyone together."

The plan is to splash the cash while he's in Auckland, with some expensive new toys being lined up.

"We'll be staying in a nice hotel, trying foods we've never had before and might squeeze in a bit of shopping too. Who knows, I might head home with a new boat.

"I've got a surprise planned for the ladies this weekend too that I'm sure they'll really love, it's going to be a big one."

The Dunedin couple who claimed their share of the $40m said the week has been a whirlwind, and they are most looking forward to a sleep-in.

They were in disbelief and over the moon, they said, after finding out their ticket was a winner last week. They had a supermarket opened after hours on Saturday to check their numbers.

"We're going to keep things pretty normal this weekend and just enjoy spending some time together.

"We haven't had a lot of sleep lately, so are looking forward to having a bit of a lie-in to be honest."

The big draw last week sent the country into a Lotto frenzy, with more than 2.7m tickets sold. More than 3000 tickets were bought each minute between 5pm and 6pm on the night of the draw.

It was the biggest draw ever in terms of tickets bought, and on offer was the largest prize ever up for grabs in a lottery in New Zealand - and it had to be won.

Nearly 100,000 people tried to check their tickets online, causing the Lotto website to crash.