In a statement, Lotto said the ticket was the last of three $5.08 million Powerball prizes which were won on the Saturday, February 14 live Lotto draw.
The lucky West Coast couple, who wish to remain anonymous, had no idea a major prize was still unclaimed in their area – until the man’s sister mentioned it in passing.
"We’d gone over to her house to visit, and my sister was talking about this big prize that hadn’t been claimed yet and how she needed to check whether her husband had bought a ticket.
"I joked, ‘Nah, no need – it was us, we won it,’ and that was before we even knew!"
The comment was quickly forgotten until a few days later, when the man was out running errands and decided to pop into New World Greymouth and check his ticket.
"The look on the operator’s face will stay with me forever," he said.
"She calmly closed the Lotto counter and took me to the office where she said ‘you’ve just won Lotto,’ and showed me the receipt with the amount on it.
After completing the paperwork, the man left the store and tried to call his partner, who was busy in the garden and didn’t hear her phone.
"When I came back inside, I saw all the missed calls, I phoned him straight back and he was crying and could barely talk, I thought something must be seriously wrong," she said.
Through tears, he finally managed to get the words out – "I’ve just won five million dollars."
"I didn’t believe him, but then he sent me a photo of the paperwork and called again saying ‘whatever you do, don’t tell anyone,’ so that’s when I thought… maybe he’s actually telling the truth."
The man drove home carefully and on high alert.
"Suddenly I was hyper-aware of everything. The only other time I’ve driven like that was when we brought our newborn baby home from the hospital."
Celebrations will come later, but that night, the couple marked the moment with a couple of chocolate biscuits in lieu of champagne.
The couple are still processing the news and have been busy thinking about their future and all of the opportunities ahead.
"We’re so overwhelmed and emotional. We just keep saying to each other ‘can you believe it?’"
"Our wishlist isn’t that long," said the man. "We’ll pay off our mortgage and do some renovations, and we’d love to take a trip in the future."
- Allied Media
