Timaru bags $7.25 million Lotto win - but who is the winner?

Sunday, 17 December 2017

Countdown Church St staff celebrate the store's $7 million Lotto win at the weekend.

The identity of the winner of $7.25m - what seems certain to be South Canterbury's biggest Lotto windfall - remains a mystery, as the winner still hasn't come forward.

Over 40 hours after Saturday's winning Powerball First Division Lotto ticket - sold at Countdown in Church St, Timaru - was drawn, the winning ticket is yet to be presented.

The total prize is made up of $7m from Powerball First Division and $250,000 from Lotto First Division as the $1m First Division was split four ways.

Staff at the supermarket said they were 'stoked and very happy for the winner'.

The Countdown branch where the winning Powerball ticket was sold.

The Lotto win has been confirmed as the biggest ever for South Canterbury and came almost two years after the previous biggest, a $7m Powerball collect in January 2016.

That win was made up of $1m from First Division and $6m from the Powerball prize.

Whoever the winner of Saturday night's prize is, life seems certain to be vastly different for them and their family now, and they may find some use for the words of last year's big winners, a family syndicate, who chose to remain anonymous.

As they prepared to claim their prize at the Lotto headquarters in Auckland, they told Stuff they still could not believe their luck - even after checking their ticket, purchased at Timaru's Pak 'n' Save, 'about a hundred times'.

A family syndicate spokesperson said at the time they had been playing Lotto since it started in New Zealand.

'And we'll still keep playing after this,' they confirmed.

'I've been playing Lotto for years, but never thought I'd win. But when I started checking the ticket, I saw we had the first four numbers, and then I saw the Powerball number. So I shut the computer off.

'I didn't want to finish checking the ticket, I was way too nervous.'

Whether or not Timaru's latest big winners are aware of the glad tidings yet, chances are they'll be sharing some of the same feelings.

Tonight's winning Lotto numbers are 23, 28, 30, 19, 33, 11. Bonus ball 16 and Powerball 3. Good luck!

— Lotto New Zealand (@Lotto_NZ) December 16, 2017