A winning New Zealand Powerball ticket, worth $16.5 million, has been won by an Auckland man after he purchased the ticket on the way home from holiday.
The lucky holidaymaker who has decided to keep a low profile purchased the ticket from Woodys Winners in Wellsford for the Powerball draw on Saturday.
"The store is quite well-known for being lucky, so whenever I'm driving past I try to stop in," he says.
The man discovered the big win when reading a post on Facebook that said the Powerball winner had purchased their ticket at Woodys Winners. He checked his numbers, and everyone was a match.
"I thought something bad had happened - he was shaking and wasn't making sense at all," his wife added.
"He finally managed to get the words out, 'We've won! We've won Powerball!'"
It's a holiday fairytale ending for the couple, who plan to buy their first house together. Then put some money aside for the kids and grandkids to make sure they are set up for years to come.
"Every few hours, I would pat my pocket to make sure the ticket was still there," he laughed when collecting the money from Lotto's Auckland head office on Monday.
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