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A New Zealand couple are celebrating a “life-changing” lottery win after what they thought was a $7600 win turned out to be a $7.6 million jackpot.
The couple, who wish to remain anonymous, eventually worked out they had become multimillionaires after taking out the top prize in the Lotto NZ Powerball.
The New Zealand couple were pretty happy with what they thought was a four-figure sum.Credit: Scott Hammond/Stuff/Marlborough Express
“I was having my coffee and reading through some work emails when I came across an email from Lotto NZ saying I’d won a prize.
“I jumped onto the MyLotto App to check my ticket but didn’t actually see the numbers line up because I was too busy drinking my coffee,” the man said.
“When I looked back at the ticket, it had $NZ8.3 million across the top, which I thought was $NZ8333 at first glance. To be fair, I was pretty happy with that!
“I called my partner over to have a look, and she thought it was $NZ8333, too.”
After closer inspection, the pair – who live in Hamilton, about 110 kilometres south of Auckland – realised it was a bit more than that.
“We were shocked and thought it was too good to be true, but when we looked online and saw someone in Hamilton had won $NZ8.3 million, we realised we had really won.”
More than a week later, the news still “hasn’t properly sunk in. I’ve snuck a look at the winning ticket a few times in the past week to make sure it’s real,” the man said.
Despite their “life-changing” news, not much has changed for the couple in the material sense.
“We’re back at work and not rushing out to buy anything crazy – although we’ll be able to splash out a bit more this Christmas,” the man said.
“We plan to take our time to think about what we really want to do. But we’ll definitely pay off our mortgage and help our family.
“This win has opened up so many opportunities for us, and we want to make sure we make the most of it.”
The $NZ8.3 million prize was made up of $NZ8 million from Powerball First Division and $NZ333,333 from NZ Lotto First Division.
Stuff
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