The mega-rich $28 million Lotto Powerball jackpot has been scooped by an Auckland grandmother who says the winnings will make a world of difference to her family.
The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, thought nothing of the Powerball ticket that was sitting in her handbag until she saw the owners of the store in the headlines.
Even then she only fantasised about being the winner.
"I imagined a little about what I would do if I was the lucky winner – but that was it, I didn't seriously think it was me!" laughed the woman.
The life-changing moment where she discovered she had the winning ticket didn't come until Monday, while she was out shopping and had decided to check a few tickets she had piled up.
"One of them won me a bonus ticket, which I thought was pretty good – then when I scanned the next one I saw 'First Division' appear on the screen," she said.
"I just couldn't make sense of it, so I took the ticket to the counter and asked the lady to check it again for me. That's when she called the store owner over and they pointed at the sign saying 'big winner sold here' and whispered to me 'that's you!'
"My heart started racing, I just couldn't believe it. The owner took me out the back of the store to let me know exactly how much I'd won and sort out the paperwork somewhere private – which was good, because by that stage I was shaking and crying, I was so overwhelmed."
The jackpot-winning ticket was bought from Meg Star in Henderson and included a one-sixth share of Lotto Division 1 - the other five players not having that lucky Powerball number.
Those five players each won $166,667.
The lucky woman has pocketed $28,166,667.
The first person she told was her daughter and their emotions ran high.
"I just stared at her for a moment, then burst into tears – and Mum started crying too. We just stood there in a quiet corner of the house crying, then laughing, then crying again for a long time," said the daughter.
The woman was now taking some time to think about what she'd do with the winnings but was already thinking about buying a new house - one that has a swimming pool for her grandchildren.
"This win means so much to us and will make such a difference to our family – I feel so incredibly lucky."
The winning Lotto numbers on Saturday were: 2, 5, 11, 20, 23 and 25.
The Bonus Ball was 35, and the Powerball was 4.
