“I remember the exact time – it was 9:47pm – that was the time my life changed,” an Auckland man recalled after discovering a $15.25 million Lotto Powerball win.
The regular player bought a $6 ticket through MyLotto while preparing a late dinner and waiting for his wife to get home, 1News reported. When he checked the numbers, the sheer scale of the win left him lying flat on the floor in shock.
A Phone Call That Sparked Panic
The winner immediately dialed his spouse, unleashing a torrent of emotion that left her fearing the worst. “He was screaming and crying down the phone, I thought something was wrong until he finally managed to tell me what had happened,” she said.
She spent the remainder of her drive home shaking, bursting through the front door to find her husband incapacitated by the news. “We hugged and I tried to calm him down, it was very emotional,” she said. The adrenaline-fueled realization kept the couple awake for the entire night. “We couldn’t sleep, but we also didn’t want to in case we woke up and it was all a dream,” she added.
Decades of Faithful Numbers Pay Off
The winning ticket relied on a combination of digits carrying deep personal significance, marking birthdays alongside engagement and wedding dates. The couple maintained this exact $6 combination even after Lotto NZ rolled out its updated 14-ball Powerball format.
This Auckland household officially became the second group of winners to secure the top prize under the new game rules. Although they have yet to finalize their spending plans, the husband noted that the multi-million-dollar injection fundamentally transforms their outlook. “This is life-changing for us. We have worked so hard for many years, and this gives us so much opportunity for our future,” he said. “We really can’t believe it has happened to us.”
