Christchurch woman wins $1m Lotto prize, celebrates with fish and chips

Photo: Lotto
Photo: Lotto
A Christchurch woman has celebrated becoming the city’s newest Lotto millionaire in true Kiwi style -  a bottle of champagne and fish and chips for dinner.

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, bought her ticket from Countdown Ferrymead for the draw on Wednesday, June 2.

She was enjoying a quiet weekend when she first got wind that she might be a winner.

"On Sunday afternoon, I thought I had better check my ticket, so I wrote the Lotto results down on a piece of paper.

"I checked them against my ticket and noticed quite a few of the numbers were the same as the numbers on one line of my ticket.

"I didn’t get too caught up in it, but thought, ‘hold on, there’s something going on here!” said the woman.

After asking her partner to take a look at the ticket she realised she had more than just a few winning numbers on her ticket. The couple decided to head down to their local Lotto store to find out whether she really had won a prize.

"We hopped in the car with the dog and off we went.

"When we arrived at the Lotto shop, I asked my partner if he wanted to come in while I checked the ticket and he replied: ‘It’s okay, you just nip in and check it, and I’ll wait here’.

"Neither of us imagined just how big the prize would be,” laughed the woman.

The Lotto operator discreetly told her she had won $1 million with Lotto First Division.

"I couldn’t believe it - I never imagined I’d won First Division, let alone $1 million!

"I frantically waved out the shop window to my partner to get him to come inside - he couldn’t believe it either.

"It was only when we all went out to the back to fill in the Prize Claim Form that it really started to hit me,” said the woman.

With the news sinking in that she was a brand new Lotto millionaire, the woman picked up a bottle of champagne and she celebrated with her partner that evening in true Kiwi style – with fish and chips for dinner.

“I only managed to sleep for about an hour that night - my mind was racing with ideas about what to do next. We truly couldn’t be more thrilled,” said the woman.

With the prize now safely in her bank account, the woman is making looking forward to helping her children and grandchildren with her winnings.