The great Ashburton Lotto hunt: Who won $28.6 million?

Saturday, 6 June 2026

From suspicious mechanics and poker-faced pensioners to absent politicians and hopeful shopkeepers, we set out to uncover the identity of Ashburton's mystery $28.6 million Lotto winner and found a town buzzing with excitement.

It was Ashburton’s “where were you when” moment …

As the Lotto balls tumbled out, one ticket had them all - 1, 9, 36, 13, 11 and 4, then the bonus ball of 24, and then the cream on the top - lucky number 9 - the Powerball.

And just like that one winner who bought their ticket from Four Square Netherby was $28.6 million richer having won Powerball and three shares of Lotto First Division.

Within minutes phones were ringing hot, and by the next day it was all anyone could talk about.

“I was just at the abattoir picking up the stock for the week in the big truck,” Netherby Meat’s owner Mike Hansen recalled, “and one of the guys came out and said ‘did you win the money butcher’… and it was like 5.30am in the morning”.

“It’d buy a few saveloys at 50 cents a pop wouldn’t it,” he quipped.

Yes indeed - 56.4 million of those red beauties to be exact.

Never mind that - was Hansen in the know about who might be bathing in champagne and oysters right about now?

“We’ve got lots of lovely elderly customers and heaps of cool customers, but no-one’s really stood out more than usual, but we’ll definitely keep an eye out,” he promised.

In fact the identity of Ashburton’s latest millionaire was proving quite the water cooler chat around town.

“Well it wasn’t me,” Jeff Marston said emphatically as he picked up his weekend snarlers.

Was he pulling the wool as they say in these parts?

“I wish I was. I can tell you now, I wouldn’t be here if it was.”

Undeterred in our Friday hunt around town, we continued sleuthing, and there were some promising leads.

Like the couple of mechanics who reckoned it was an elderly person who chose the same numbers every week religiously.

Another tip suggested the person was someone who had “medical challenges”.

This sounded promising until we realised 22% of the population in Netherby were 60 and over, meaning it’s more than likely that quite a number may have “medical issues”.

Then a man muttered that he had heard the person lived on a street two blocks away from where the ticket was purchased.

So we dutifully checked out the said street (a journalist never divulges the location to beat off the competition) but sadly nothing was screaming out ‘I won $28.6m’.

There were no flash campervans, no luxury cars, not even a souped-up mobility scooter… just the odd pensioner going about their business.

With our tail between our legs we did what any self respecting investigating journalists would do in this situation - bowl up to random strangers and ask them if they were suddenly richer.

Then we judged their reactions, but either these Canterbury folk have the perfect poker faces, or they were genuinely flummoxed as to who it could be.

“It’s not me, “ Ashburton District Councillor Phil Hooper said before adding, “Although can we make this quick because I need to book some flights…100% it wasn’t me but are there two Ns in resign?”

Shunyan was just as bamboozled. He had only been in Aotearoa since January, so didn’t know what Lotto was and then admitted he’d never bought a lottery ticket in his life.

We were smart enough to think this could be a ruse… but then Shunyan did something we didn’t expect. He turned around and went straight to the Four Square, emerging five minutes later with a Lotto ticket and a huge grin.

“Hey! I just got my very first lottery ticket for life,” he proclaimed.

So the trail had gone cold - again.

But we had a plan and decided we would concentrate on the very thing that was right under our noses - the people who weren’t in Ashburton, like Mayor Liz McMillan who claimed she was in the back blocks of Mid Canterbury, rather than the council buildings - but then her phone mysteriously cut off.

We tried to find local MP James Meager but his office was empty…

Then there was Four Square owner Kim Woods, who was in Christchurch when we began our investigation, and it turns out, had brought a ticket for Wednesday’s draw from her shop.

Could this be a double bluff?

Alas no. Woods arrived just in time to tell us she didn’t even check her ticket until the following day. By then her phone was overheating from excited callers.

“Sadly it wasn’t me.”

At this we had to admit defeat. We went hopeful of cracking the biggest mystery to hit the rural town in years, but would have to leave it as a cold case.

What we did find, however, was a town buzzing from the news, and the hopes expressed by many that whoever won was a local.

And we found a shop that is the heart of the local community, the kind of place where staff know customer names, and who are proud to have sold the winning ticket.

“I feel like we’re the luckiest store this week,” Woods said. “It’s certainly put Ashburton on the map.”

“We’re a lucky wee place,” Hooper agreed. “But not just because of the Lotto win. We’re a lucky wee place because it’s an awesome place to live so come to town, buy your tickets and enjoy your stay!”

Editors note: Liz McMillan and James Meager have subsequently been located, and did not appear to be the winners.