Persistence has paid off for a Taranaki couple who won $8.3 million in last week’s Powerball First Division Lotto draw using the same “special set of numbers” they had played for close to two decades.
The couple, who wished to remain anonymous, said the win was “absolutely incredible”.
“We picked the numbers together a long time ago and have been playing them ever since,” the woman said.
She was about to clean her car on Thursday when she heard on the radio that a MyLotto player from Taranaki had won.,
“I was on my way out the door when I heard the news and said to my husband, ‘I’d just better check the ticket because otherwise I’d be thinking ‘it could be me, it could be me’.”
The woman logged into MyLotto on her iPad and watched the virtual draw.
“I watched all the numbers come up one after the other – I was just speechless – and then when I saw the amount, it was absolutely incredible.
“There were a few tears that’s for sure. We kept looking at the ticket to check it was real – it was unbelievable.”
The pair spent the rest of the day discussing what to do with their winnings.
“We’re not going to make any immediate big decisions but one thing we did decide on straight away is how we’re going to help our family,” said the woman.
“We’re excited to get together and tell them the good news, when the time is right.”
