Rumours fly but no sign of big winners

The tiny Far North township of Kaeo is full of rumour and speculation over who won Saturday night's $18 million Lotto powerball prize but the identity of the new multi-millionaires remains a secret.

"There are too many rumours to remember them all. It seems like every day it's a new person," said Stephanie Lane, chief Lotto seller at Kaeo Four Square which sold the winning ticket.

It won $17,992,975 - NZ Lotteries' biggest payout on a single ticket.

A large family of "ordinary people" from the north of the North Island claimed the prize in Wellington on Monday.

NZ Lotteries said the winners wanted to remain anonymous and gave no information on who they were or where they lived.

"There's talk about people in Kaeo who left town and went away on Monday [to collect their winnings in Wellington]," Stephanie said yesterday. "First it was an old couple, then a young guy, then someone's family."

Kaeo Four Square co-owner Hitendra Patel confirmed there were plenty of rumours.

"Some are about families but they haven't come in and told us. They say it's local but it's hard to know. I don't know whether we'll find out," he said.

A worker at Kaeo's biggest employer, Sanford's oyster factory and processing plant that employs more than 100 people, said various people had been identified as the winners.

"But it turns out they're all still broke," he said.

A woman working at the town's White Swan Tavern reports "heaps of speculation" about who the winners might be. "People think they know but then they don't," she said.

"I think it's a bit soon for a big spend-up. I don't think anyone will spend up big in the town for a couple of weeks."

Kaeo, 110km north of Whangarei, has a population of about 500.