Lotto has been pumping up its publicity machine to promote a huge looming jackpot - but what can $23 million really buy?
The big Powerball jackpot this weekend would make its winners rich enough to buy two Manhattan apartments worthy of a New Zealand diplomat.
If Colin Craig won, he'd be able to pay out or forgive loans to his former press secretary Rachel MacGregor about 410 times.
Steven Joyce might be interested to know $23m could buy 164 display monitors of the type installed in the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment headquarters.
If you're philanthropically inclined, and not averse to lycra, you could offer to chip in to some of Transport Minister Simon Bridges' cycleway projects.
For example, you could match the latest taxpayers' and ratepayers' contribution to New Plymouth's Coronation Avenue Cycleway 63 times over.
If you feel like following the bellwethers for upper-middle class aspiration, you'll need decent wheels.
The Powerball prize could buy 92 Ferrari California convertibles similar to the 2012 model broadcaster Mike Hosking was spotted driving into TVNZ last year. It'd also get you at least a hundred F430 F1 "sharknose" Ferraris similar to one Terry Serepisos had before he went bankrupt.
New Zealand's most famous Lotto winner, Trevor Cooper, won nearly $27 million in March 2012. He invested in real estate, and made a profit on his Karaka mansion, so take a tip from Trev and splash out on property.
Foreign Minister Murray McCully has refused to apologise this week for the Government spending $11m on a Manhattan apartment for Gerard van Bohemen, New Zealand's permanent representative at the United Nations.
Mr McCully defended the spend, despite much cheaper but still flashy apartments being on sale within a few blocks of the UN headquarters.
The New York Times real estate section had 176 apartments in the East Midtown area up for grabs at a 10th or less of what New Zealand spent on Mr van Bohemen's pad.
But the luxury-minded Lotto winner who did wish to emulate our man at the UN could easily snap up two apartments at the Trump World Tower on 845 United Nations Plaza for $23m.
Each had three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and access to a 24-hour our concierge, spa, and health club with an 18m swimming pool.
As Mr Cooper would testify, winning a Lotto jackpot can seriously impose on one's privacy. A private island might be the perfect tonic to keep away story-hungry journalists and dubious long-lost relatives.
Sadly, Pakatoa Island, a former rehab centre for alcoholics reborn as a Hauraki Gulf jewel that seems permanently for sale, will be out of reach with its $40m asking price. Better luck next time.
