The game will now jackpot again for next week's Big Wednesday when $43m million will be up for grabs.
Two Cantabrians were among 7 who shared in Lotto's $1 million First Division, taking home $142,857 each.
One winning ticket was bought via MyLotto from Waimakariri and the other from Prestons New World in Christchurch.
The night's biggest winner was one lucky player who took out Strike - the first four balls drawn in the right order - worth $400,000.
Tonight's numbers were : 11, 23, 28, 4, 16 and 7.
The Bonus ball was 36, and the Powerball was 5.
Queues of people aching to get their hands on tonight's winning Lotto ticket are stretching out the door at New Zealand's luckiest store.
Unichem Stortford Lodge Pharmacy, in Hastings, Hawke's Bay, has sold a winning First Division ticket 49 times and hopes to reach the half-century mark with tonight's $38 million Powerball draw.
Pharmacist Susan Donaldson said the pharmacy was full of hype this morning and people were rushing through the doors as soon as the shop opened at 9am.
"Three-quarters of the queue is out the door," Donaldson told The New Zealand Herald.
"Everybody in that queue is convinced they are going to win."
She said even the staff had purchased tickets and were excited about tonight's big draw.
"We've got a staff syndicate."
The Hastings store sells six times the number of Lotto tickets as any other store in the region in an average week.
Before a $35 million draw in February, the pharmacy was so busy it was forced to operate three Lotto machines at once to keep the queue down.
The jackpot tonight is worth $38 million, making it potentially the second-highest Powerball win to date.
Close to 1.3 million tickets were sold ahead of the midweek draw but Lotto NZ was expecting about 1.6 million tickets to be purchased before the big reveal.
If the prize this evening is won by a single ticket holder, it will be the second-highest total win in Powerball's 19-year history.
The biggest Powerball prize of $44.1 million went to a Hibiscus Coast couple in 2016.
Marie Winfield, Lotto NZ's head of communications and corporate social responsibility, said they were expecting it to be really busy in-store and online so were encouraging people to buy their tickets early.
In February, 2.6 million tickets were sold for Lotto NZ's $50 million must-be-won draw which was won by two separate ticket holders, who each won $25.1 million.
Sales peaked on the night of the draw between 6pm and 7pm when 2500 tickets were sold every minute - 150,000 in one hour.
New Zealand's top 5 luckiest Lotto stores
1. Unichem Stortford Lodge Pharmacy, Hastings, with 49 first-division wins.
2. Richmond Night 'n Day, Nelson, with 35 first-division wins.
3=. Pak'nSave Riccarton, Christchurch; and Coastlands Lotto, Paraparaumu with 33 first division wins.
5. Hornby Mall Lotto, Christchurch, with 31 first-division wins.
