An Ōpōtiki couple who landed a $12.5 million Lotto jackpot say they had a hunch they might have the winning ticket – and couldn’t fall asleep until they had checked it.
The pair, who wish to remain anonymous, are regular players, who play a little differently to most.
“We usually pick a few lines based on the numbers that stand out to us at that time and then let the MyLotto app autofill the rest of the lines for us, and that’s what we did on Saturday,” said the man.
Later that night the couple were in bed when something told the man to check the ticket.
“We were about to go to sleep, but I suddenly had this feeling that I just had to check it.
“I didn’t log in to MyLotto straight away but looked online and saw Powerball had been won in the Bay of Plenty.
“My partner said, ‘well they definitely look like some of our numbers’ and that’s when we started to get nervous.”
The man opened the MyLotto App, and the virtual draw started to play straight away.
“That ‘scratch, scratch, scratch’ noise it makes when it’s marking your numbers just kept going.
“We got to six, so I knew we’d won big, but in that split second before the Powerball came up, we didn’t dare believe it would,” he said.
When the final number matched, disbelief set in.
“I sat straight up in bed and shouted, ‘you’ve got to be kidding me!’
“My partner thought I was playing a prank on her – she still doesn’t actually think it’s real. She said she’ll wait to see it in the bank account before she gets too excited,” he laughed.
“It felt we were in a dream – like maybe we had actually fallen asleep and none of it was real. We just kept saying to each other… ‘are we going to wake up now?’”
With so much running through their minds, the couple were awake all night.
“I usually sleep really well, but I couldn’t sleep at all that night, or the night after.”
With their win safely claimed, the couple say they are going to take some time to really think about what this means for them and their families.
“Of course we want to help our families, but we don’t know what that looks like yet. We still can’t wrap our heads around it – it’s going to take a while to process before we make any decisions.”
2025 Powerball wins
The Ōpōtiki couple became New Zealand’s 14th Powerball multi-millionaire of 2025.
January 8 – $7 million – MyLotto – Wellington
January 22 – $8.3 million – MyLotto – Taranaki
February 8 – $10.5 million – Glenview Centre Lotto & Post – Hamilton
February 26 – $10.5 million – Paper Plus Waihi & Toyworld – Waihī
March 15 – $5.5 million – New World St Martins – Christchurch
March 15 – $5.5 million – New World Gardens – Dunedin
March 22 – $5.3 million – Windsor On the Spot Express – Port Chalmers
April 23 – $23.3 million – MyLotto – Auckland
May 21 – $17.2 million – New World Whitby – Porirua
June 21 – $15.08 million – Plaza Supervalue – Invercargill
June 21 – $15.08 million – MyLotto – Wellington
July 9 – $10.3 million – MyLotto – Christchurch
August 9 – $20.25 million – MyLotto – Christchurch
August 30 – $12.5 million – MyLotto – Ōpōtiki